Entangled leatherback sea turtle adds to commercial Dungeness crabbing fleet’s woes and delays season

The recent loss of a critically endangered Pacific leatherback sea turtle found ensnared in derelict crabbing gear near the Farallon Islands is considered the “worst case scenario” for collapsing turtle population and Dungeness crab fishery.|

The recent loss of a critically endangered Pacific leatherback sea turtle found ensnared in derelict crabbing gear near the Farallon Islands has cast a pall over the troubled commercial fishing fleet as it struggles to stay afloat in a world of reduced crabbing opportunities and other restrictions.

Described by an attorney with Earthjustice as “a gut punch,” the death of the rare, migratory turtle has fueled calls for less risky crabbing methods and was cited Thursday by California Fish and Wildlife Director Chuck Bonham as just one more reason to postpone the start of this year’s Dungeness crab season for a third time.

The massive turtles exist at the brink of extinction, particularly those hatched on beaches in Indonesia and the Solomon Islands, where they begin their journey across the Pacific Ocean. They often migrate up to 10,000 miles, to forage on jellyfish and other “gelatinous prey,” state and federal wildlife agencies say. Their presence off the California coast has declined by about 90% over the past three decades.

The Nov. 24 discovery that one had died in crabbing gear “is a worst-case scenario, both for this critically endangered sea turtle population and for California’s Dungeness crab fishery,” said Ashley Blacow-Draeger, Pacific policy and communications manager for Oceana.

A continued wait for Dungeness crab season was almost inevitable in any case, given a succession of endangered humpback whale entanglements this year were sufficient to trigger action by the state to prevent more harm.

Four humpback whales have been found entangled in California commercial crabbing gear since June, including one discovered Nov. 11.

The delay announced Thursday means it will now be at least New Year’s Day before commercial crabbers can harvest what was once a staple on North Coast Thanksgiving dinner tables.

For years, the commercial season launched in mid-November each year in waters south of Point Arena. A 2017 lawsuit against the state by the Center for Biological Diversity under the Endangered Species Act forced Fish and Wildlife to develop new management protocols to reduce the risk of whale and sea turtle entanglements.

The result has been late starts and early closures of the crabbing season almost consistently since March 2019, robbing crabbers of the chance to profit from high demand over Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. The season used to run Nov. 15 to June 30.

Though still abundant in the fishing grounds this year, humpback whales have begun migrating to their southern breeding grounds in Central America and southern Mexico. But there still are enough of them foraging off the Bay Area and Central Coast to present a risk of further entanglement if crabbers were allowed to drop their pots in the ocean now, the state said.

The next risk assessment, scheduled Dec. 19, will determine if the season can open soon.

“If historical patterns hold true, we should see a pretty marked reduction in whales off the coast in mid-December,” said Ryan Bartling, a senior environmental scientist with the state wildlife agency. “That’s only a few weeks off.”

The potential presence of rare Pacific leatherback sea turtles in the area raises the stakes, however, though they are too cryptic an animal to be surveyed easily, Bartling said.

Bartling said the recent entanglement involved an adult or subadult turtle, estimated at 1,000 pounds, found in about 100 feet of water by a state Fish and Wildlife crew checking for lost crab gear in the Marine Protected Area around the Farallones. It was tangled in rope and buoys and submerged in the water, and thus couldn’t breathe. There were no other injuries or signs of ill-health.

It’s believed the gear became lost outside the Marine Protected Area, where no fishing is allowed, and likely got washed into the area during a storm, he said.

An identification tag on one of the buoys led officials to the owner, who said he hadn’t fished in the area since the 2020-21 season, Bartling said.

The turtle only came across the gear recently, though, and since they’re all pursuing the best supply of jellyfish, “it’s reasonable to assume there could be others,” he said.

Geoff Shester, California campaign director and senior scientist for Oceana and a member of the California Dungeness crab Fishing Gear Working Group, said commercial crabbers are not to blame for the state of the sea turtles. At risk of incidental capture by other fisheries, they also are threatened by turtle hunting, vessel strikes, pollution and egg collection. Their nesting areas have been badly disrupted by coastal development.

But there is still more crabbers could and should do to reduce the risk of entangling one, including a move to pop-up gear that limits vertical lines in the water.

For the region’s commercial fishing fleet, whose entire salmon season was closed due to low fish stocks, the continued delay is agonizing and, for some, an existential threat. And though the season has not been open on time for several years now, each year of sacrifice reinforces the realization that the crab business will never be what it was, especially for the smaller boats typical of the Sonoma Coast.

“A lot of guys are on the verge. A lot of guys are borrowed out, and they can’t get any more credit,” said veteran Bodega Bay fisherman Tony Anello, who, unlike most, is sustained by a firefighter’s pension and a popular seafood eatery on the harbor that he and his wife own and operate. “It’s going to be a very slim Christmas for some people. Very slim.”

Many crabbers are also resistant or, at least, hesitant to embrace new gear innovations promoted by Oceana and other nongovernmental conservation groups that substantially reduce the number of vertical lines in the water, connecting surface buoys to pots on the ocean floor.

But they remain in limited use because of the cost of new equipment and, for some, uncertainty about their reliability.

Though dubbed “ropeless” they do, in fact, have ropes coiled up in pots that sit on the ocean bottom until an acoustic signal triggers them to release a line and buoy to the surface, noted Dick Ogg, president of the Bodega Bay Fisherman’s Marketing Association and a prominent participant in safe-fishing conversation. They still get lost and misfire, so they aren’t as risk-free as advertised, he said.

“Just the fact that we had an interaction with an animal that is on the verge of extinction is just completely mind boggling. And the fact that it was just a lost piece of equipment: it just makes me sick. I’m just heartbroken this whole thing is happening this way.”

But pop-up gear, he said, “is not a silver bullet.”

Ogg and some colleagues are seeking permission from the state to use traditional pots but strung together so there are far fewer attached lines.

Anello, meanwhile, wishes commercial crabbers were authorized to use the same closely monitored hoop nets that have allowed recreational crabbers to harvest crab since early November. Because the are closely tended instead of being left for extended periods, they are not considered as much of an entanglement risk.

If commercial boats could use them too, even on a limited basis, it would give them a chance to make a little money, at least, Anello said.

Forced to wait until January or February, when the worst weather hits, those same people will be forced to fish “in the heart of the beast,” he said. “That’s going to be the most dangerous time to go.”

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan (she/her) at 707-521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.

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