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With a delay in the commercial fishing season for Dungeness crab, the playing field is wide open for sport anglers this week. The season, which opened Nov. 7, is already off to a spectacular start with many sportfishing boats out of San Francisco Bay hitting their 10-crab-per-person limits on recent outings.
“It used to be the salmon opener that drew the big crowds, but now it’s the crab opener, and we’re blessed,” said Andy Guiliano, owner of charter company Fish Emeryville. “I showed up before dawn Tuesday morning and the parking lot was already full — everybody going out — and I had to park way out in the gravel.”
The commercial season — the period when it is legal for the larger fishing fleets to scoop up crabs for consumer sales — is postponed to at least Dec. 1. Wildlife regulators passed an emergency action to reduce the risk of whales becoming entangled in the thousands of commercial lines that extend to the crab pots on the ocean bottom.
The sportfishing season, with comparatively few crab pots, has become the only game in town for Dungeness.
On Monday, 161 people on eight sportfishing boats out of San Francisco, Sausalito, Emeryville and Berkeley hauled up limits of both Dungeness crab and rockfish for a total of 1,610 creatures netted. While the baited crab pots sit on the bottom, anglers then often crown the trips by catching 10-fish limits of rockfish at reefs near the Farallon Islands or along the coast.
In response to COVID-19, boats are limiting trips to 18-21 passengers, about 60% capacity, Guiliano said, to maintain social distancing and keep the trips safe. With a reduction in passengers, the prices for trips have been raised to cover overhead. A spot on a charter boat now costs generally about $225 per person for “Crab & Fish Combos,” and $125 for crab only.
To make it easy for newcomers, a dock service is also available at Emeryville and most harbors where a limit of 10 Dungeness crab can be cooked and cleaned for $25, plus about $1 per rockfish for two fillets, or $10 for 20 fillets.
Many across California have been confused by media headlines telling them some version of, “No Dungeness crab for Thanksgiving.” With the commercial season closed, it is illegal to buy and sell sport-caught Dungeness crab.
At the heart of the issue is a lawsuit by the Center of Biological Diversity, which sued the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, alleging that the department was not doing enough to protect whales from being entangled in lines set by commercial fishing operations. In a settlement, the department agreed to shut down commercial activity in areas where aerial surveys sight whales or large baitfish populations are identified that might attract whales.
Yet it is legal to catch Dungeness on sportfishing boats.
After a blowout over the weekend, the ocean calmed Monday, and by Tuesday, the briny deep “resembled a mill pond,” as captains like to say. Sport boats ventured out of bay and coastal harbors to set their pots at the rich fishing grounds in 180-210 feet of water. Most bait the crab traps with squid; some use salmon carcasses saved from the past summer’s fishing. The crab traps are hoisted by power gurneys — a multi-person operation — rather than by hand.
According to historical numbers provided by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, as good as the limit sportfishing can be before the commercial season is opened, the annual sport catch represents about 1% of the annual commercial catch.
If you want to go
Seasons: Sport crab and rockfish seasons now open; commercial crab season tentatively scheduled to open Dec. 1
Sport limits: 10 Dungeness crab, 10 rockfish
Costs: Crab & fish combo, $225; crab only, $125; cook-and-clean 10 crabs, $25; fillet rockfish, $1 per fish; some small variations per operations.
License: California state fishing license required, info and link: www.wildlife.ca.gov/Licensing/Fishing -- click on “online”
Tom Stienstra is The Chronicle’s outdoor writer. Email: tstienstra@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @StienstraTom.
The Link LonkNovember 12, 2020 at 12:19AM
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Dungeness crab sport season off to sensational start - San Francisco Chronicle
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