Commercial Dungeness crab season will officially come to a close in the state this week, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said Friday.
The CDFW on June 20 will close crabbing in Zone 1 and 2, which comprises the California-Oregon border to the Sonoma-Mendocino County line.
The commercial season ended earlier for areas south of the county line, with the Bay Area crabbing season ending in April.
The reason is to minimize the risk of humpback whales getting entangled in fishing nets, CDFW officials said. The whales forage off the coast, increasing the risk of entanglement.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, there were 24 confirmed whale entanglements off the California coast in 2024. Dungeness crab pots were the most documented cause, totaling 11 known entanglements, and humpback whales were the most entrapped whales.
One of the most recent entanglements took place in October, when a humpback whale was entangled in crab traps off the coast of Monterey, NOAA officials said. It took the Large Whale Entanglement Response Network, a group of scientific and nonprofit organizations that respond to whale entanglements, six months to free the whale due to inclement weather and the whale’s movements, which at times made it inaccessible to rescue teams.
“If California keeps allowing crab fishing when humpbacks are feeding just off the coast, it all but guarantees that more whales will be injured and killed.”
Ben Grundy, Center for Biological Diversity
In response, the California Fish and Game Commission expanded trials using pop-up crabbing gear, which is reported to be safer for whales while still being profitable for fishermen. CDFW is working to create regulations that will authorize statewide use of the pop-up gear starting in 2026.
Ben Grundy, oceans campaigner for the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting endangered species through grassroots activism and scientific research, called for the use of the pop-up gear immediately.
“If California keeps allowing crab fishing when humpbacks are feeding just off the coast, it all but guarantees that more whales will be injured and killed,” Grundy said. “It’s reprehensible to keep subjecting humpbacks to entanglements when we have safe alternatives like pop-up gear. The state should’ve closed the fishery to vertical lines months ago.”
Three fishing zones are currently participating in the program, including the Bay Area, meaning fans of the state’s official crustacean may still be able to purchase fresh crabs from select fishermen or stores.
However, fans on the North Coast will be restricted to recreational crab trapping with hoop nets and crab snares, as Zones 1 and 2 are not participating in the experimental program.
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