Dungeness crab season opens after months of delays
MONTEREY, Calif. (KION-TV) -- The Dungeness Crab season is open after a months-long delay in Monterey. Fishermen and restaurants along the coast have been impacted by the months-long delay.
Fishermen were gearing up, getting ready to hit the waters. It means that they are going to really pick up the pace. Fishermen hitting these waters Monday morning for the official start of crab season.
It’s all hands on deck at the Monterey Fish Company with fishermen making up for lost time. The commercial crab season kicking off Sunday. Gaspar Catanzaro is the manager of Monterey Fish Company, having waited for the season to start.
“It’s been long awaited, we’ve had a rough couple of years here with salmon not available. This is a big shot in the arm, us, our customers and the restaurants," Catanzaro said.
With years of crab seasons being delayed, it’s impacted business here.
“We use to have about seven drivers, two guys working backup just loading up trucks, four people in the front. Now we’re down to not even half,” Catanzaro said.
That’s not all that’s been cut in half. Fishing Zone 4, which includes the Monterey Bay will be subject to a 50 percent trap reduction. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife says it is expected to reduce entanglement risk for humpback whales by decreasing the amount of gear and vertical lines in the water.
“We understand that plight of we don’t want to kill the whales, we don’t want to kill the turtles, we want to protect everything. But we also want them to work with us," Catanzaro said.
Catanzaro has been through many delays, he says this one was the hardest.
“First of all we had no salmon, the squid season was low, when the crab went away, it impacted our holiday season," Catanzaro said. "The seafood industry here, most of our restaurants here, they are mainly local restaurants that want to sell local seafood, and when we don’t have it, in affects them too.”
And fishermen here say that over the next few months, they will be out on these water day and night and try to get as much as they can. The season will run through July.
