Quick Take
After a late start to the Dungeness crab season, fishers along the West Coast, including Santa Cruz County, are reporting extremely low stock numbers. It’s not clear why there are so few full-sized crabs, and it could be just a “down year,” according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The low numbers are leading some Santa Cruz fishers to move on to other fisheries early, while others are capitalizing on the high price, which has doubled from previous years.
One month after the Dungeness crab season opened on the Central Coast, Santa Cruz fishers are grappling with an extremely low number of crabs.
“It’s devastating,” said fisher Valerie Phillips, who splits her time fishing out of Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay harbors. She said she and her crew, which includes her husband, father and a crew member, have caught only about a third of what they would normally catch in a season. “We’re talking about pulling the pots already. We’re probably going to switch to our next fishery.”
“It’s a down year up and down the coast, even in Oregon,” said Tim Obert, a Santa Cruz-based fisher with more than 25 years of experience. “In the Santa Cruz area and Monterey Bay, there’s almost nothing.”
Fishers are catching – and releasing – a higher number of juvenile crabs, which are small and not legal to keep, but aren’t seeing nearly as many large, adult crabs as they normally would.
It’s unclear why there are so few full-sized crabs, but it’s not unusual, said Ryan Bartling, a senior environmental scientist for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“Crab are very cyclical, and there are periods of lower and higher abundance,” he said. “It’s nothing ominous that we’re aware of. It’s just a down year.”
Unlike other species, the CDFW doesn’t keep track of stock levels of Dungeness crab because the species is considered sustainable, said Bartling.
With so few crabs making their way to shore, the price has nearly doubled. Obert said he typically sells his crabs for $3 to $3.50 per pound; at the end of January, he sold them for $7 per pound.
Low stock numbers in one of the area’s most lucrative fisheries is just the latest blow to local crab fishers, who are feeling the effects of nearly a decade of changes to the industry.
In Santa Cruz County, Dungeness crab traditionally makes up a significant portion of the annual income for fishers, many of whom divide their year by fishing for crab in the winter and salmon in the spring and summer.
However, for the past nine years that traditional rhythm has been disrupted due to a slew of environmental factors. As migratory whales are lingering along the Central Coast for longer periods of time, the Dungeness crab season has been shortened on both ends by more than a month in order to protect whales from becoming entangled in the fishing lines.
The 2024-25 season opened for the entire state south of the Sonoma/Mendocino County line, including Santa Cruz County, on Jan. 5, about six weeks after its historical start date of Nov. 15, to protect whales along the Central Coast.
The state’s salmon fishery has been closed entirely since 2023 because of extremely low stock numbers, with little sign of recovery. It is expected to be closed again this year.
Despite the high price, Phillips is prepared to declare this crab season a bust.
“We’re looking at switching over to rockfish by March,” she said. “We’re getting to the point where the bait, fuel and share to the crew isn’t enough for the boat to make profits.”
Obert, however, plans to seek out as many crabs as he can and use the high price to his advantage. “The only way you’re going to be able to survive this year is to put in the extra effort and capitalize on the price of the product,” he said.
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