1/14/12
After waiting weeks for the season to begin, commercial crab fishermen were allowed to drop their traps into the water Friday at noon.
Dozens of boats loaded with crab pots headed out to sea on Friday morning, and crab is expected to show up on docks on Sunday.
Eureka crab fisherman Scott Creps said fishermen will be waiting on the water at midnight Sunday to pull up their catch.
”It's been a month and a half -- everybody's really anxious to get going,” he said “We've got a good price to get started with.”
DFG senior marine biologist Pete Kalvass said crab samples tested last weekend finally showed crabs from all ports on the North Coast -- including Eureka and Trinidad -- meeting the minimum standards for the season. Although the season normally starts Dec. 1, early results showed that the crabs weren't meaty enough, delaying the season. Crabs must be 25 percent meat to reach the threshold.
Creps said fishermen have been offered $3 a pound, a substantial increase from last year's price of $1.75 a pound.
The delayed market may have played a role in the price.
The season has already opened in the San Francisco Bay Area, where parties agreed to a price of $2.25 a pound in late November after a two-week bargaining delay.
