Although the commercial Dungeness crab fishery along the central and southern Oregon coast opened on Dec. 19, crabbing on the north coast — from Cape Falcon to the Washington border — will remain closed until at least Jan. 15. A third round of preseason testing in Long Beach, Washington, shows crab meat fill remains lower than required for commercial harvest.
Based on this result not meeting Tri-State meat recovery criteria, and in consultation with Washington and California Departments of Fish and Wildlife, Tri-State fishery managers agreed to delay the season from Cape Falcon to Klipsan Beach, Washington, until at least Jan. 15. WDFW will conduct another round of preseason meat fill testing to help inform whether this area will open Jan. 15 or Feb. 1.
Oregon’s commercial Dungeness crab fishery opened Dec. 16 from Cape Falcon to the California border. Despite rough ocean conditions this past week, more than 2.5 million pounds of crab were landed into Oregon ports in that area. Price at the docks averaged $4.50 per pound, well above last season’s total season average of $3.79 per pound…