San Francisco, Calif. — Nov. 13, 2018 The annual commercial Dungeness crab season is poised to launch this Thursday, Nov. 15. Over the course of the season, which runs to June 2019, commercial crabbers can expect to harvest 20 to 40 million pounds of male Dungeness crabs. No females are harvested and fishing professionals are careful to follow legal restrictions regarding the size and weight of males to ensure they’re able to reproduce replenish their populations.

“California’s Dungeness crab fishery is one of the most progressively designed and collaboratively managed fisheries on the West Coast,” said Noah Oppenheim, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, “Our crab populations are stable and doing well. Yet climate change continues to threaten crab fisheries in complex and unpredictable ways.”

Recent crab seasons have been marred by high levels of domoic acid, an environmental toxin generated by microscopic marine algae. Increasingly common due to ocean waters warmed by climate change, high levels of domoic acid not only prevent crab from being harvested, they also can lead to widespread problems other marine creatures, including birds, sea lions, and whales.

For example, domoic acid can accumulate to unhealthy levels in large marine mammals like humpback whales, leading to increased stranding rates and even increased incidences of entanglement with fishing gear. PCFFA was a lead sponsor of California Senate Bill 1309, authored by North Coast senator Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg) and passed this year, which will enable new and effective approaches to protecting marine mammals for the benefit of both the whales and the fishing fleet, with fishermen, environmentalists and fishery managers all at the table.

“Fishermen are integral to designing solutions to complex fisheries problems. That may sound like common sense, but it’s really a novel concept for agencies used to prescriptive management tools,” said Oppenheim. “If solutions to climate change-related issues in fisheries don’t work on the water, they won’t work for the seafood loving public, who ultimately owns the resources we harvest. A win for us is a win for whales and the public trust.”

PCFFA also recently joined a broader lawsuit against the fossil fuel industry to exact penalties for knowingly contributing to the climate changes that affect our seafood supply and close down fisheries for months at a time.
 
“In California alone,” Oppenheim estimated, “Dungeness crab fishing is worth $50-$60 million to the local economy. Losing this economic driver would mean disaster to fishing families and would be an irreplaceable loss to Bay Area culture. We can’t allow that to happen, and that’s why we’re taking a stand now.”