Commercial crab season looking dismal
0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Nov 10, 2009 | by Julia Scott
PRINCETON-BY-THE-SEA — Commercial crab fishermen are getting a preview of what the upcoming Dungeness fishing season — which begins Sunday — will deliver, and they say it doesn’t look too promising.
Local sport fishermen, whose crabbing season opened earlier, on Nov. 1, have brought back mixed reports of crab pots (nets) full of local Dungeness. However, fishermen say the crabs, which tend to congregate close to Half Moon Bay at this time of year, are unusually small this season — too puny for commercial fishermen to harvest because they must wait until the crabs are at least 6 1/4 inches wide before bringing them to market. Recreational fishermen do not face similar size restrictions because they have catch limits.
Half Moon Bay fisherman Duncan MacLean said he and his fellow commercial crabbers are not feeling optimistic about their season.
“It sounds like it’s kind of a tossup. I’m sure we’ll make a season out of it, but I’m not sure it will be a bumper year,” he said.
Party boat Captain Allen Chin has made a couple of runs out of Pillar Point Harbor since Nov. 1 with customers on his boat, the Tigerfish.
They caught all the crabs they wanted, but he says the commercial season will be “pretty grim” based inflatable boats on all the undersized crabs he’s seen. He fears there won’t be enough local crabs to go around as soon as the out-of-town crab boats descend on the Bay Area to compete for the bounty.
“If it’s anything like it was last year, as soon as the commercial season opened it was pretty much over
Nov 11, 2009
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