[ODFW-News] Commercial Dungeness crab season north of Cape Falcon to open between Dec. 29 and Jan. 15

[ODFW News]

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife 	
For more information call 503-947-6002
Internet: www.dfw.state.or.us  


For immediate release	Friday, Dec. 10, 2004

Commercial Dungeness crab season north of Cape Falcon to open between
Dec. 29 and Jan. 15

NEWPORT - The opening of commercial Dungeness crab season north of Cape
Falcon will be delayed longer than expected.The crab season along most
of the Oregon coast opened as scheduled on Dec. 1, but the area north of
Cape Falcon, about 30 miles south of the Columbia River, remained
closed.

Last month, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife adopted a
temporary rule to split the opening date for the Oregon 2004-05 ocean
commercial Dungeness crab fishery. Quality testing indicated that the
area off the mouth of the Columbia River has crab that is not projected
to meet the minimum meat fill-out rate.
At that time, projections indicated an opening date of Dec. 15 north of
Cape Falcon. Following recent testing by Washington state, however, crab
fishery managers now project that the crab north of Cape Falcon will not
be ready for harvest before Dec. 29 at the earliest. The area will open
no later than Jan. 15. 

The split opening dates for Oregon allowed much of the coast to open as
scheduled while giving time for crab in the north to fill out to the
required pick-out rate. The pick-out rate is the percentage, by weight,
of the crab's meat to the total weight of the crab. It takes about two
to three months for an adult male crab to fill-out its new shell
following molt in the late summer. During this period the leg and body
meat is watery and of poor quality.

An agreement between California, Oregon and Washington includes
procedures for pre-season meat pick-out testing of Dungeness crab.  If
minimum crab pick-out rates are not met (23 percent north and 25 percent
south of Cascade Head in Oregon), a procedure delays the season on all
or part of the West Coast.  

A test done two weeks ago put the pick-out percentage for crab north of
Cape Falcon at 19.6. Another test this week put the percentage at 19.9 -
too low to meet the minimum rate for opening the area by Dec. 15.
To provide a more orderly fishery during a split opening, commercial
crab-vessel operators must declare their intention to fish north or
south of Cape Falcon. Those vessels fishing south of Cape Falcon must
wait 30 days following the opening north of Cape Falcon to fish that
area.

The Dungeness crab fishery is the most valuable single-species fishery
in Oregon. Annual landings in Oregon are between 10 million and 23
million pounds - about one-fourth of the total catch from northern
California to Alaska.

###