The endangered whales are moving on. It’s safe for San Francisco fishermen to catch Dungeness crab again.

Commercial fishing for the crab, usually a centerpiece of Christmas dinners in Northern California, will open Jan. 5 in central California waters, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife announced Friday.

The Dungeness season was delayed to keep migrating humpback whales from becoming tangled in fishing gear. Entanglements once killed as many as 20 of the federally protected whales in a season, said Ryan Bartling, a senior environmental scientist supervisor for the wildlife department. The latest number is three, he said.

The humpback population is monitored by aircraft between Point Pinos in Monterey County and the Russian River in Sonoma County. Surveys beginning in October found 200 to 300 animals in the Gulf of the Farallones and Monterey Bay, the main fishing grounds, Bartling said.

Most of the whales have now headed to the waters of Central America and Mexico, with local numbers decreasing steadily to 20 to 30, he said.

Some restrictions remain

Although the season is open, fishermen will be required to reduce traps by 40%.

“Opening the commercial crab fishing season under a trap reduction strikes a balance between the needs of the commercial fishery and the protection of humpback whales which remain in areas that overlap with key fishing areas off the California coast,” the department said in a news release.

The terms were welcomed by the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, the largest commercial fishing trade association on the West Coast.

“Hard work and sacrifices by the fleet have reduced entanglements even as whale populations have grown, and we appreciate CDFW for recognizing that progress. …”
Lisa Damrosch, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations

“Hard work and sacrifices by the fleet have reduced entanglements even as whale populations have grown, and we appreciate CDFW for recognizing that progress and responding by opening the season with additional opportunity,” said Lisa Damrosch, executive director of organization, in a press release. “This opening reflects a careful balance and shows what is possible through shared effort to thread the needle within the system we are operating under.”

CDFW also lifted the recreational crab trap restriction beginning Jan. 2 at 8:01 a.m. between the California/Oregon border and Cape Mendocino and between the Sonoma/Mendocino County line and Lopez Point, Monterey County.