California’s commercial Dungeness crab season delayed again to protect whales

SAN FRANCISCO — The start of the commercial Dungeness crab season in California has been delayed for the seventh year in a row to protect humpback whales from becoming entangled in trap and buoy lines.

The state Department of Fish and Wildlife said Friday that commercial crabbing will be delayed until at least Dec. 1. The situation will be reassessed on or around Nov. 15.

It’s the latest delay for the start of the commercial season, which traditionally begins in mid-November for waters between the Mendocino county line and the border with Mexico.

Meanwhile the recreational take of Dungeness crab using traps will be temporarily restricted in some areas when the recreational season opens Nov. 2, officials said. Recreational crabbers will be able to use other methods, including hoop nets and crab snares.

The commercial crab industry is one of California’s major fisheries and the shellfish is especially popular around the holidays.

Humpback whales can get caught in the vertical ropes connected to heavy commercial traps, which they can drag around for months, leaving them injured, starved or so exhausted that they can drown.

Humpback whales migrate north annually from Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, where they birth calves. In spring, summer and fall the humpbacks feed on anchovies, sardines and krill off the California coast before heading back south.