Commercial crab fishing opens Tuesday, but fishermen are still reeling from last year’s abysmal season and haven’t seen any sign of the hoped-for federal emergency funds Gov. Jerry Brown requested from the Department of Commerce.
In February, Brown wrote a letter to Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, asking her to declare a fishery resource disaster. He sought federal help in offsetting the $48.3 million loss to the industry after crab fishing was put on hold due to toxin contamination.
“Dungeness crab is one of the highest valued commercial fisheries in California,” he wrote. “Declaring a commercial failure will enable the fishing communities affected by the closure to receive essential economic assistance.”
