Originally Posted By: bushbear
Don Velasquez spoke to our NOP PSA chapter last Thursday about shrimping and crabbing opportunities this year. He works out of the Mill Creek office for the Puget Sound shellfish program.

He said the test fisheries indicated a 30% drop in the crab population in the central and S Sound. Lots of females were found, but not many males. Supposition is the warmer waters the past couple of years might have impacted the spawning success.

If you have a fishing club/organization, if Don is available, you'd enjoy his presentation.


The MA 13 Dungy population pretty much hit bottom a couple of years ago. The 2016 season in MA 11 resulted in a reported harvest of about 25% of the agreed upon number. And if that phenomenon is now pushing north into MA 10 will we see it continue throughout Puget Sound?

Edit: Keeping in mind that the WDFW Dungeness crab management plan has as a foundation the assumption that a healthy population can be maintained even if every legal (male, 6 1/4 inch min) is removed from the population assuming that males 5 3/4 inch are successful breeders. If the population is now not healthy in some MAs is it time to question that assumption? If there are few sub-legal males in the population do we need to simply stop crabbing to maximize potential recovery in those MAs? Of course, that would require cooperation from the tribes.....


Edited by Larry B (06/22/17 12:14 PM)
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