No California Dungeness Crab Before New Year’s
Whale entanglement numbers reach six-year high off U.S. West Coast
Press Release Date: December 6, 2024
Location: Monterey, Calif.
Contact:
Ashley Blacow | email: ablacow@oceana.org | tel: 1.831.643.9220
Today the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) announced that the California commercial Dungeness crab fishery will remain closed statewide until at least December 31 to prevent whales from becoming entangled in crab gear. Recreational Dungeness crab traps will also remain prohibited off the central coast.
CDFW reports that four humpback whales were confirmed entangled in California commercial Dungeness crab gear so far this year, with an additional nine humpbacks entangled in unidentified fishing gear that may be California Dungeness crab gear. Another humpback entanglement was confirmed by NOAA Fisheries on December 2. Of all commercial fishing gears on the U.S. West Coast, the California Dungeness crab fishery is associated with the most confirmed entanglements, and with recent surveys showing large numbers of whales still feeding off the California coast, CDFW announced it will further postpone the commercial Dungeness crab season opener statewide until 2025. Preliminary numbers from NOAA Fisheries indicate 34 confirmed whale entanglements off the U.S. West Coast so far in 2024, which is the highest in the last six years.
“We support the Department’s decision to further delay opening the crab season, especially with whales still feeding off our shores and the alarming number of whale entanglements this year. Stronger measures are needed to bring entanglement numbers down and prevent this ongoing and unacceptable wildlife tragedy along the West Coast,” said Dr. Geoff Shester, Oceana’s California campaign director and senior scientist. “Whale entanglements off the West Coast this year are at a six-year high and it’s time to acknowledge that the current management system isn’t working. Stronger pre-emptive actions along with gear marking, electronic vessel tracking, and authorization of innovative pop-up fishing gear for large scale springtime use across California’s commercial Dungeness crab fleet is the ‘win-win’ for the future of the fishery and whales.”
CDFW is currently developing new updated regulations to address wildlife entanglements in the Dungeness crab fishery, including a requirement to phase in unique line marking so entanglements can be identified to the fishery, electronic vessel monitoring, and regulations enabling CDFW to authorize innovative pop-up gear for widespread springtime use. Fishermen are working hard to enable authorization of pop-up gear by spring of 2026 that could allow for crab fishing without danger to whales and other wildlife and revive the spring crabbing season off California’s central coast.
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.
Pop-up fishing gear (also called “ropeless” or “on-demand”) is a 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 a release mechanism is triggered that sends the buoy to the surface. Last spring through a Sub Sea Sonics/Guardian Ropeless Systems California Dungeness crab Experimental Fishing Permit pop-up fishing gear was tested by 19 commercial California Dungeness crab fishermen who showed 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. The California Fish and Game Commission will be considering an expanded Experimental Fishing Permit at its meeting next week which would allow even more fishermen to test the gear in Spring of 2025.
One of the humpback whale populations that migrates to feed off the California coast breeds in Central American/Southern Mexico and is endangered with extinction under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. According to the 2022 NMFS Humpback Whale Stock Assessment, these humpbacks are seriously injured or killed by human activity at a rate of four times the threshold above which there are population-level impacts that prevent the species from attaining an optimum sustainable population level in accordance with the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA).
According to the 2022 assessment, the California Dungeness crab fishery alone is injuring and killing this endangered whale population at levels three times higher than what would be considered a “Negligible Impact” under the MMPA and has injured endangered humpback whales in numbers that may prevent the state from obtaining a required Incidental Take Permit from NMFS. In addition, a highly endangered Pacific leatherback sea turtle was recently entangled in commercial crab gear, and that population is at such low numbers that even the loss of a single turtle can impact their ability to recover.
This is the sixth consecutive year that the commercial Dungeness crab fishing season has been delayed in California to prevent entanglements. Historically the season off the central and southern California coasts began on November 15 and the northern region would open on December 1.
To learn more about Oceana’s campaign for whale safe oceans please visit www.oceana.org/WhaleSafeOceans
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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 300 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.
