[ODFW-News] Commercial Dungeness crab season opens south of Cape Falcon

[ODFW News]

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife 	
For more information call 800-720-6339 
Internet: www.dfw.state.or.us  


For immediate release	Wednesday, November 24, 2004

Commercial Dungeness crab season opens south of Cape Falcon

NEWPORT - The commercial Dungeness crab season will open as scheduled
Wednesday, Dec. 1, along most of the Oregon coast, but will remain
closed until Dec. 15 north of Cape Falcon, about 30 miles south of the
Columbia River.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife adopted a temporary rule to
split the opening date for the Oregon 2004-05 ocean commercial Dungeness
crab fishery. Quality testing indicated that the area off the mouth of
the Columbia River has crab that is not projected to meet the minimum
meat fill-out rate until Dec. 15. The temporary rule is effective only
for the 2004-05 season.

The West Coast Dungeness crab fishery traditionally has had a single
Dec. 1 season opening from approximately Point Arena in California north
to the Canadian border. Under the Pacific States Marine Fishery
Commission (PSMFC) Dungeness Crab Tri-state process, Oregon, Washington
and California's Fish and Wildlife agencies consult on issues that
result in any deviation from that Dec. 1 scheduled opener.  

The split opening dates for Oregon allow much of the coast to open as
scheduled while giving time for crab in the north to fill out to the
required pick-out rate. The pick-out rate is the percentage, by weight,
of the crab's meat to the total weight of the crab. It takes about two
to three months for an adult male crab to fill-out its new shell
following its molt in the summer. During this period the leg and body
meat is watery and of poor quality.

The Tri-state agreement includes procedures for pre-season meat
pick-out testing of Dungeness crab. If crab meat fill-out rates are not
met (23 percent north and 25 percent south of Cascade Head in Oregon), a
procedure delays the season on all or part of the West Coast. The Dec. 1
projected meat pick-out percentages from Point Arena in California to
Garibaldi were above the minimums set through the Tri-State process.

To provide a more orderly fishery during a split opening, commercial
crab vessel operators must declare their intention to fish north or
south of Cape Falcon. Those vessels fishing south of Cape Falcon must
wait 30 days following the Dec. 15 opening to fish north of Cape
Falcon.
The Dungeness crab fishery is the most valuable single-species fishery
in Oregon. Annual landings in Oregon are in the neighborhood of 10
million to 23 million pounds - about one fourth of the total catch from
northern California to Alaska.

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