The state’s coastal commercial Dungeness crab season is underway, following months of test fishing and data gathering by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW).
This year’s season opened Jan. 15 from Klipsan Beach on the Long Beach Peninsula south to Cape Falcon, Ore., including the Columbia River and Willapa Bay, and will start Feb. 11 from Klipsan Beach north to the U.S.-Canada border, including Grays Harbor, according to a news release from WDFW.
The Washington, Oregon and California fish and wildlife departments decide season openers each year as part of a tri-state agreement signed in the 1990s to cooperatively manage the West Coast Dungeness crab fishery. Per the agreement, the season can open as early as Dec. 1, but opening dates vary and are based on test fishing to determine crab condition.
Over the fall and early winter, WDFW biologists and scientific technicians collected and measured crabs aboard commercial fishing vessels the Department contracts with for test fishing. They also observed seafood processing plants as workers picked out and packed crab meat.
Meat recovered from the crab must reach at least 23 percent of the total body weight before Washington’s season opens. This threshold indicates a crab has molted, or shed its old shell and developed a hard shell, and that it will be in marketable condition with greater meat quantity and quality by the season opener.
“Once you hit that 23 percent mark, the crabs are improving every day and are ready to be harvested,” said Clayton Parson, a WDFW coastal shellfish technician.
This marketability is crucial, as Dungeness crabs support Washington’s most valuable commercial fishery and are a major source of economic activity in coastal communities such as Westport and Ilwaco. The value of state landings for the 2023–24 coastal commercial Dungeness crab season was $66.8 million, surpassed only by an $88.2 million record set during the 2021–22 season.
Per the agreement between Washington, Oregon, and California, fish and wildlife departments conduct test fishing from November to December, with optional tests in October and January. Each department determines the number and location of test areas in its state. WDFW samples crab in the Westport and Long Beach areas to determine season openers north and south of Klipsan Beach.
A 23 percent meat recovery threshold applies to testing areas north of Cascade Head near Lincoln City, Ore., and a 24 percent threshold applies to testing areas from Cascade Head south to Point Arena, Calif. Each state stops test fishing within an area when it meets the meat recovery threshold, and the three states work together to coordinate season openers in areas where crab have met the threshold.
