Due to the dangers presented to humpback whales, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced it will end commercial and recreational Dungeness crab fishing south of Pigeon Point, including Monterey Bay and Morro Bay, on April 15.
Vertical lines will be allowed to continue in other parts of Northern California, including Zones 1-3 in Half Moon Bay, San Francisco and Bodega Bay, where whales are now returning to their feeding grounds.
This crab season had first opened on Jan. 5.
Officials explained that the whale entanglements off the West Coast reached a six-year high in 2024. There are confirmed reports of a humpback whale currently entangled in multiple sets of Dungeness crab gear of Monterey Bay. The same whale has been reported entangled three different times since October.
Whale entanglement is fatal in 75% of cases, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service. The whales have a difficult time diving and feeding while dragging heavy fishing gear for months, which can cause severe damage and drowning.
“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,” Dr. Geoff Shester, Oceana’s California campaign director and senior scientist, said in a statement. “This repeated pattern of waiting too long to close the fishery is harming endangered whale populations and is a disservice to local fishing communities.”
Scientists estimate that the reported entanglements are only 10% of the actual entanglements, according to Oceana.
“California’s plan for reducing whale entanglements is not working,” Shester said. “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.”
After a season ends in a fishing zone, fishermen may continue seeking crab while using pop-up fishing gear under experimental fishing permits. This gear stores the rope and buoy with a trap on the seafloor until an acoustic release mechanism sends the buoy to the surface.
Pop-up gear was tested by 19 fishermen last spring, while waters were closed to conventional crab gear to prevent whale entanglements. These fishermen saw a 98% success rate and yielded $1.5 million worth of crab, according to Oceana.
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