Experts hopeful for crab fishing

California’s recreational or sports crab fishery opens along the
Sonoma Coast Saturday, Nov. 6, with state fishery officials
expecting a pretty decent season this year.
“We’re getting some mixed signals based on limited information,”
said Peter Kalvass, a California Department of Fish & Game
senior marine biologist based in Fort Bragg. “But over all, it
looks like we’re coming out of a trough in an upswing.”
“Crab abundance is cyclical and if the size of last year’s
commercial catch is a good indicator it would appear the population
may be moving into an upswing in the cycle,” Kalvass said, adding,
“This could be good news for recreational crabbers as it might mean
a satisfying season is ahead.”
In addition, he said, a juvenile crab study three years ago in
San Francisco Bay showed a healthy population of juvenile crabs, a
population that should have matured to fishable size by now.
Kalvass, who oversees the DFG’s Invertebrate Management Project,
said as a result of federal funding, his agency conducted the first
coast-wide recreational Dungeness survey last year showing more
than 350,000 Dungeness taken by the state’s sport crabbers, mostly
caught in November and December.
The sports season closes June 30 south of Mendocino County and a
month earlier north of the county line.
DFG biologists, say the sports catch is about one percent of the
state commercial take, which was about 8.36 million pounds in
2007-2008, a 38-percent decrease from the previous year.
The state’s commercial season starts November 15 and runs
through June south of the Mendocino county line.
Sonoma County’s commercial Dungeness crab landings were pegged
at 1,044,861 pounds worth $3,270,761 as documented in the 2009
county agricultural crop report, the most recent tally.
The daily sports limit is 10 Dungeness per person off the Sonoma
Coast except when on a commercial party boat where the limit is
six.
A legal sports caught Dungeness crab must be five and
three-quarters inches measured through the shortest distance of the
body from the edge of the shell in front of and excluding the
lateral spines on the sides. Recreational party boat-caught
Dungeness, however, must be six inches minimum distance.
The commercial size limit is males only, 6.25 inches or
better.
Fishing for Dungeness is illegal in San Pablo and San Francisco
bays, which are considered to be extremely important, crab nursery
areas.
Dungeness crabs are generally thought to have a range extending
from the Aleutian Islands to Point Conception in California, and
are found, depending on age, ranging from shallow eel grass beds to
deep water up to 750 feet deep or 125 fathoms, although they are
most commonly found up to 300 feet deep, and generally on sandy or
muddy bottoms.
They can reach 9 inches in length.
For more information visit www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/invertebrate/crabs.asp.