Whales off California coast delay commercial crab season

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — For the fourth 12 months in a row, the beginning of the business Dungeness crab season in California might be delayed to guard humpback whales from turning into entangled in lure and buoy strains, it was introduced Monday.

The California Division of Fish and Wildlife introduced that it was delaying the beginning of the business season, which historically begins Nov. 15, till additional discover for waters between the Mendocino county line and the border with Mexico.

Authorities first introduced a delay late final month. The scenario might be reassessed on or earlier than Dec. 7 and if circumstances enable, business crabbing may very well be permitted on Dec. 16, the division stated.

The crab trade is one among California’s main fisheries and the shellfish is particularly fashionable across the holidays, stated Geoff Shester, California marketing campaign director and senior scientist on the nonprofit conservation group Oceana.

“Lots of people eat crab as a substitute of turkey out right here for Thanksgiving,” he stated.

Nevertheless, humpback whales can get caught within the vertical ropes linked to heavy business traps, which they will drag round for months, leaving them injured, starved or so exhausted that they will drown.

The fish and recreation division stated there have been 15 confirmed entanglements of humpback whales by fishing gear off California this 12 months, together with three involving Dungeness crab gear.

Humpback whales migrate north yearly from Mexico’s Baja California peninsula the place they start calves. In spring, summer time and fall the humpbacks feed on anchovies, sardines and krill off the California coast earlier than heading again south.

Aerial surveys taken on Nov. 9 confirmed there have been nonetheless at the very least 39 whales in a single ocean zone whereas business whale-watching journeys have reported one or two dozen every week in different areas, the fish and wildlife division stated.

Along with the delay due to whales, the business Dungeness crab season in Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte counties was delayed till Dec. 16 as a result of assessments confirmed the crab meat was of poor high quality, the division stated.