SF Crab Fishers Feeling The Boil

Words can’t begin to describe what I’m feeling right now. I have a 4-month-old daughter, a boat payment and a dock payment that don’t know there’s an oil spill. The planned income that’s supposed to be there might be gone.

These are the words of James Smith, owner and operator of the crab boat California Dawn reflecting on the potential loss of the sport crabbing season as a result of the fuel spill in San Francisco Bay. Yet the decision to shoulder this loss is self-imposed. Bay Area fishermen voted unanimously last Saturday to request a delay of local Dungeness crab season due to safety concerns associated with the spill. Yesterday, Gov. Schwarzenegger suspended all fishing for human consumption--including the Dungeness crab season which was scheduled to open this week--through Dec 1 or until the state Department of Fish and Game and state health officials determine the season can be reopened.

This is not just a tragedy at the dinner table. The impact on crab and other aquatic life in the Bay will likely be felt far into the future. “Right now, the bay is loaded with baby Dungeness,” said Larry Collins, president of San Francisco’s Crab Boat Owners Association. “As that fuel moves down the water column, it could devastate crab numbers for years to come.”

Not only does the spill harm the crab and crab-lovers, the commercial fishermen take a hit as well. “We just had a horrible salmon season and a lot of the commercial guys are depending on the crab season to survive in this business,” said Collins. “We seem to be going from one catastrophe to the next.”

The postponement of crab season will force the loss of income for perhaps two weeks, and local crab fishermen will lose the high prices attributed to the San Francisco tradition of Dungeness crab for Thanksgiving. Restaurants will still have Dungeness to sell but they will need to source their supply from the Pacific Northwest rather than from local fishers.

UPDATE:
The Department of Fish and Game decided to leave open much of the traditional crab grounds in the ocean outside the Golden Gate to both commercial and recreational fishermen. The Gov. initiated closure will stand however for most of the waters inside the Bay. Waters outside of 3 nautical miles, between Pedro Point and Point Reyes, will remain open to fishermen. We are flabbergasted," said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations. "The decision makes sense for the recreational fishermen, but not for the commercial crabbers. There now is real potential to bring contaminated crab into the market."