Calif. Loves Dungeness Crab, But Whale Safety Concerns Put Industry In Peril

"The Dungeness crab fishery is under increasing regulation as California tries to prevent whales from getting entangled in fishing gear. Facing a truncated season and sharp limits on how many pots they can throw, crabbers wonder whether the industry can survive. Experiments with a new form of pop-up crabbing gear show promise and could offer a solution."

"BODEGA BAY, Calif. — It was a calm January morning, the waters off Bodega Bay unusually smooth, but crab fisherman Dick Ogg couldn’t shake a grim feeling that the day wouldn’t go his way.

The Dungeness crab season had opened just a few weeks earlier — two months behind schedule — and was off to a slow start. “We’re working very hard to basically get nothing,” said Ogg.

The anemic hauls so early in the season mark the latest setback for California’s commercial Dungeness crab fishery, a roughly $45-million-a-year industry that delivers one of the state’s most iconic culinary delights"

Hannah Wiley reports for the Los Angeles Times with photography by Brian van der Brug February 10, 2025.

Source: LA Times, 02/12/2025