Bay Area’s Dungeness commercial crab season can start officially Jan. 18 — with caveats

The Bay Area’s commercial Dungeness crab season can can begin Jan. 18, state officials announced Thursday afternoon, now that many of the migrating behemoths of the sea have safely made their way down the coast.

The decision comes after a series of delays since November meant to protect whales from getting tangled in fishing lines, and comes with a key restriction: Fleets will have to operate under a 50 percent trap reduction until further notice.

“This management decision is a balanced approach that achieves two outcomes,” the California Department of Fish and Wildlife announcement said. “First, this trap reduction will help reduce entanglement risk for humpback whales by reducing the amount of gear and vertical lines in the water. Second, the decision gets the commercial fishery open statewide.”

The commercial season started Jan. 5 for California’s far northern counties, Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte. In those areas, the trap restrictions have now been lifted. However, pricing disagreements and poor weather conditions have stalled crabbing in those areas.

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