California Dungeness Crab Fishery to Close off Monterey Bay to Protect Whales; Bay Area and Northern California Remain Open
State Isn’t Doing Enough to Reduce Entanglements
Press Release Date: April 4, 2025
Location: MONTEREY, CALIF.
Contact:
Ashley Blacow | email: ablacow@oceana.org | tel: 1.831.643.9220
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (Department) announced it will close the commercial and recreational Dungeness crab fisheries using vertical fishing lines south of Pigeon Point — including Monterey Bay and Morro Bay — effective April 15 to prevent further whale entanglements. However, vertical lines will be allowed in Zones 1-3, including areas off Half Moon Bay, San Francisco, and Bodega Bay where whales are now returning to their feeding grounds.
Confirmed whale entanglements off the West Coast reached a six-year high in 2024 and the upcoming closure to conventional vertical line crab gear follows the return of migrating whales and confirmed reports of a humpback whale currently entangled in multiple sets of California commercial Dungeness crab gear off Monterey Bay. Efforts are underway by NOAA’s Large Whale Entanglement Response Network to track and free the animal. The whale was first sighted in October 2024 entangled in lines with two California commercial Dungeness crab buoys. It was sighted again last month, and NOAA confirmed the whale became entangled in additional Dungeness crab gear this season. However, since the whale was previously entangled the Department doesn’t count it as an entanglement in the current season. The Department is slated to weaken the current regulations in upcoming seasons.
Dr. Geoff Shester, Oceana’s California campaign director and senior scientist and a member of the California Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group, released the following statement:
“California’s plan for reducing whale entanglements is not working. Keeping the Bay Area and Northern California crab season open right now presents an extreme risk to endangered whales — with very low reward — that will ultimately hurt California fishing communities in the long-term. Year after year, the commercial Dungeness crab fishery has stayed open too late into the season, resulting in excessive entanglements of humpback whales in vertical fishing lines as the animals return to feed in the highly productive waters off the state, putting the long-term prospects for both the fishery and recovering whale populations at risk. By the time the whales return in large numbers, it is already too late. While the California Department of Fish and Wildlife required gear reductions in the number of vertical lines this year, they continually choose not to close the season earlier despite evidence that whales are returning and the high number of entanglements in recent years. Based on the Department’s own data, in the last three seasons, 33 humpback whales out of a total of 38 were first sighted entangled after the central California crab season closed. This repeated pattern of waiting too long to close the fishery is harming endangered whale populations and is a disservice to local fishing communities.”
“Establishing a permanently shortened fixed season start and end date for conventional crabbing gear moving forward will benefit the whales, fishermen, and the state of California. This will better protect whales from entanglement, provide fishermen with certainty about the duration of their fishing season — taking out the guess work with a moving target on the calendar — and save the Department of Fish and Wildlife resources in expensive data collection exercises, which include biweekly surveys from airplanes to conduct whale counts. Once the season is closed to conventional crab gear, we support a continued springtime crab fishery using innovative, whale-safe pop-up fishing gear. Following expanded testing this spring, the gear will be ready for authorization by the Department of Fish and Wildlife which would make it available to the entire commercial crabbing fleet next spring.”
Once the season ends for conventional gear in a fishing zone, fishermen may use whale-safe pop-up fishing gear to continue landing Dungeness crab commercially under Experimental Fishing Permits approved by the California Fish and Game Commission.
Background:
According to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), roughly 75 percent of reported whale entanglements are fatal as whales can drag heavy fishing gear for months, hindering their ability to dive and feed. This can result in malnutrition, starvation, infection to damaged flukes and even severed appendages and drowning.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife reports that four humpback whales were confirmed entangled in California commercial Dungeness crab gear last year, with an additional ten humpbacks entangled in unidentified fishing gear that may be California Dungeness crab gear. Since the current regulations were implemented in 2020, humpback whale entanglements have remained several times higher than federal law allows.
Of all West Coast fisheries, the California Dungeness crab fishery is most commonly associated with confirmed entanglements, sparking efforts to reduce interactions between the fishing gear and whales. Additionally, scientists estimate that the number of reported entangled whales is only 10 percent of the actual number of whales entangled.
Pop-up fishing gear (also called “ropeless” or “on-demand”) is a proven way to prevent whale entanglements while providing additional fishing opportunities. Rather than a line connecting a surface buoy to a trap on the seafloor that can hang in the water column for multiple days, pop-up gear stores the rope and buoy with the trap on the seafloor until an acoustic release mechanism is triggered from the fishing boat that sends the buoy to the surface. Last spring pop-up fishing gear was tested by 19 commercial California Dungeness crab fishermen who had a 98% success rate in gear retrieval and landed a total of 292,000 pounds of crab valued at approximately $1.5 million. This was during a time when waters off central California were closed to conventional crab gear to prevent whale entanglements.
For information on the most recent whale entanglement, response efforts, or confirmed whale entanglement numbers, please contact NOAA Public Affairs Officer Michael Milstein at michael.milstein@noaa.gov.
CDFW information on all humpback whale and sea turtle entanglements since implementation of the Risk Assessment and Mitigation Program is available here.
To learn more about Oceana’s campaign for whale safe oceans please visit www.oceana.org/WhaleSafeOceans
Oceana is the largest international advocacy organization dedicated solely to ocean conservation. Oceana is rebuilding abundant and biodiverse oceans by winning science-based policies in countries that control one-quarter of the world’s wild fish catch. With more than 325 victories that stop overfishing, habitat destruction, oil and plastic pollution, and the killing of threatened species like turtles, whales, and sharks, Oceana’s campaigns are delivering results. A restored ocean means that 1 billion people can enjoy a healthy seafood meal every day, forever. Together, we can save the oceans and help feed the world. Visit Oceana.org to learn more.
