The price strike by Bay Area crab fishermen against seafood distributors broke this season along a historic fracture: the competing interests of local fishermen and larger boats from Northern California, Oregon and Washington that swoop to our coast and scoop up Dungeness crab every year.
While most fishermen from Bodega Bay, San Francisco and Half Moon Bay were prepared to hold out for their asking price of $2.50 a pound, locals say, a small group of fishermen, many of them from out of state, decided $2.25 was good enough. They headed out Nov. 28 to soak their traps, abruptly ending a two-week standoff and touching off a mad dash to sea.
It was yet another frustrating episode for crab fishermen from Mendocino to Monterey, who face unrelenting pressure from northern competitors who descend on the area when the local season opens Nov. 15 and then land more crab during the northern Pacific Coast's season, which typically begins Dec. 1.
But help for local fishermen may be on the way in the form of legislation by state Sen. Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, that establishes crab-pot limits in California. Proponents say the bill, by restraining the intensity of fishing, will not only ease competition from large boats, but also diminish the frenzy of the season's opening weeks. Fishermen catch most of the crab for the entire season during those early days. The season ends in June. Slowing the rate at which fishermen haul in their catch would allow crab lovers to enjoy fresh local crab longer, serving it at Super Bowl parties or cracking claws on Valentine's Day.
But the effects of the crab-pot limit may be modest, fishermen and experts say, and the bill could be just a first step toward safeguarding the local fishery.
"It's not a silver bullet, but it's a starting point," said Steve Hackett, chairman of the business school at Humboldt State, who has studied the Dungeness crab industry extensively.
SB 369, which Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law in September, establishes a tiered limit on the number of pots each fisherman can use, ranging from 175 to 500. The number of pots fishermen get will depend on how many pounds of crab they pulled in from 2003 to 2008. The law will take effect during the 2012-13 or 2013-14 season, depending on how long it takes to implement.
Proponents say the new rules will slow fishermen down by restricting how many crab they can catch at one time, which means fewer of the crustaceans will be caught in the first month or two of the season. The limits will have their biggest effect on the largest northern boats, some of which carry as many as 1,000-1,500 pots. If the big boats make off with less crab, there will be more available for smaller operators.
Fishermen do not anticipate a reduction in the total amount of crab that's caught. Washington and Oregon implemented pot limits in 2005 and 2006, respectively, and officials there say the rules haven't caused a drop in the amount of crab. Fishermen have changed how they operate, officials say, often becoming more efficient, catching the same amount of crab while spending less money replacing lost traps.
Changing the dynamics of the Dungeness crab market could benefit California consumers. Nowadays more crab is caught early in the season than seafood processors can sell whole or live. Processors have adjusted by pursuing lucrative markets for frozen or canned crab, much of which is consumed outside California by patrons of cruise-ship and casino buffets. A 2004 study cowritten by Steve Hackett estimated that just half of California's Dungeness crab was sold live or fresh from 1999-2001. Pot limits could result in fresh local crab being available past January, when the local market typically peters out.
"Instead of having it just for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's, you might have it for Valentine's Day and even Mother's Day," said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, a trade association for commercial fishermen.
But it's unclear how significant this shift will be. Oregon fishermen still catch about 80 percent of their crab in the first two months of the season, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Daniel Ayres, a senior biologist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, said the race for crab has slowed down a bit, but not much.
Hackett said SB 369 is not likely to cause any dramatic changes to California's second-largest fishery. Dungeness crab trails only squid in terms of annual poundage. Fishermen statewide caught 27.5 million pounds of Dungeness crab during the 2010-11 season, the most since records started being kept in 1915, and sold it for $56.7 million.
"The derby aspect is going to be present even when you have trap limits, because the abundance of Dungeness crab is highest at the start of the season, so the economic value of a day at sea is higher than a day later in the season," Hackett said. "There's still going to be a race for crab, there's still going to be north-south issues, but it's a starting point, and I think it will have moderately beneficial effects."
The crab-pot limit was devised by a task force composed primarily of California commercial crab fishermen. If the task force wants to go further to protect operators of small boats and stretch out the season, there are a number of measures it could consider. Hackett's 2004 study found there was support among California fishermen for restricting fishing at night. Such a regulation would favor smaller boats, since bigger boats have more capacity to fish 24 hours a day.
The task force could also recommend pushing back the opening of the central California season to Dec. 1, which would inhibit northern boats from double-dipping. But Grader said fishermen are resistant to the idea of losing the Thanksgiving market.
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