Recreational crabbing season delayed a week to improve shell conditions

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife delayed opening the local recreational crabbing season for one week after finding that too many Dungeness crabs’ shells hadn’t yet hardened after molting, a condition that can lead to high mortality rates if crabs are handled.

The area, called Marine Area 7 North, will now open August 20 rather than August 13. The area extends from the north edges of Lummi and Patos islands north to the border, and it includes Blaine, Birch Bay and Point Roberts. Tribes have agreed to delay recreational crab opening as well, he said.

The season is for both red rock crab and Dungeness crab, though the more popular Dungeness crabs caused the delay.

Recent tests in Marine Area 7 North indicated that about 40 percent of crabs weren’t meeting WDFW’s shell hardness criteria, the agency said in an August 7 press release. Mature crabs go through a process of losing and re-growing their exoskeletons – called molting – about once a year.

“We use a criteria of about 80 percent to open the fishery,” said WDFW crustacean biologist Don Velasquez. “Most years, by mid-August we achieve about 80 percent. For whatever reason, this year’s one of those outlier years, so the decision was to push the opening date back.”

Crab shell hardness after molting probably depends on multiple factors, Velasquez said, including food available, water temperature and the number of crab in the area. An extra week should be enough for close to 80 percent of crab shells to harden, he said

Crab with shells that have not yet hardened typically don’t have as much meat as those further along in the molting process – they’re typically around 10 percent meat by weight, versus 25 percent for hardened crabs. Because of that, crabbers often don’t keep those crabs, and that handling can be fatal for the soft-shell crabs.

“If you have enough people crabbing, they may be handled multiple times,” Velasquez said. “They just don’t deal well with that.”

Marine Area 7 North is historically where the bulk of Puget Sound Dungeness crab comes from, Velasquez said, and it’s also the last to open for crabbing.

For many crabbers, the delay has thrown off vacation plans. Blaine harbormaster Andy Peterson said he’s talked with more than 30 people who were planning to come crabbing during the first week of the season.

“This is the big weekend for a lot of folks,” he said about the first weekend of the season. “There’s been some frustrations and some disappointment.”

To offset lost opportunity from the delay, crabbing will be allowed seven days a week beginning September 24 in both Marine Area 7 South and Marine Area 7 North. The switch to a seven days per week fishery in these areas usually begins the first week
of October.

Velasquez said delayed openings are rare; the last one he recalls was in 2004 in Holmes Harbor, on Whidbey Island.

“The state does not want to cause people to have to change their plans. We do hear about the disruption, the canceled plans, moorages, when we have a late molt like we have this year,” he said. “That’s why we try to pick a date as far back so that most year’s it’s going to open on time.”

Find additional information about Washington’s crab seasons, areas and regulations on WDFW’s website at wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/shellfishing-regulations/crab.