Crab tests postponed for a week

Results determine season’s start date

Before local commercial crabbing begins, tests must show meaty crabs.

A third round of quality testing is needed before fishery managers finalize the commercial opener for the Tri-State area, which includes the North Coast.

“It’s very rare that we have to do a third test,” said Peter Kalvass, senior marine biologist for the California Department of Fish and Game. Typically the first or second test proves that crabs are meaty enough for market, Kalvass said.

The third test was scheduled for last weekend, but the observers who oversee the testing  had training that prevented testing until this weekend for the North Coast, Kalvass said.

Fishery managers hope to complete the third and final test this week, which will determine if the current Dec. 16 opening date will stand or if the opener will be pushed back another 15 days. The season will open by Jan. 15 regardless of preseason quality testing.

“We need to talk about having a system that’s more surefire that we can rely on each year,” Kalvass said.

California state law mandates that the testing must be done with an  observer from an outside entity in order for the tests to remain objective, Kalvass said.

The privately contracted testing observers in California are primarily funded by the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC), which helps state agencies and the fishing industry manage  Pacific Ocean fisheries.

In the past, PSMFC, did not have enough funding to do quality tests in the Central Coast region, but extra funding surfaced for additional tests this year, said Dave Colpo, senior program manager for PSMFC.

The new tests were conducted in Fort Bragg, Bodega Bay and Half Moon Bay.

Those tests did not affect the season opening date of that region, which was Nov. 15, but they were desired for better understanding of the entire West Coast fishery.

Central Coast crabbers only just started laying pots Monday due to a price standoff with area seafood processors. Fishermen wanted $2.50 per pound while processors offered $2 per pound.  The groups settled on $2.25.

During the Tri-State Dungeness Crab Commission meeting last summer, California Central Coast testing was proposed, and an Oregon group offered to foot the bill.

“We saw an opportunity to hopefully help out,” said Nick Furman, executive director of the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission (ODCC). “What happens in Northern California affects us up here and throughout the coast.”

Gaps created by a lack of testing in the Central Coast region of Northern California affected the understanding of the fishery, and for one or two years, the ODCC is willing to contribute funding for those tests, Furman said.

The tests in Oregon are primarily funded by the ODCC, which receives money from the state’s crab industry, Furman said.

“We think that ultimately, California fishermen should set up a  similar commodity commission to help fund this testing,” Furman said.

Observers cost $365 a day, and they make sure that tests follow protocol: laying pots within a mile of the right latitude and longitude parallels and at the correct variety of depths, taking the appropriately sized crabs, and properly picking out the meat at the processors, Colpo said.

The observers go out with fishermen who help out with the tests voluntarily, sometimes reimbursed by fishermen associations, Kalvass said.

Crabs must have 23 to 25 percent meat mass, depending on the region, in order for the commercial season to begin.

There are many factors that could contribute to skinny crabs, like the timing of upwelling or delay in molting patterns, but there is not a glaring reason for this year’s delay, Kalvass said.  Mainly, nature does not follow a human calendar year, Kalvass said.

“When that gun does go off, we want to make sure the crabs are in the best possible condition to bring to market,” Furman said