I'm a Central & South Sound crabber, but visiting Birch Bay this week, a beautiful place. Curious why such a late and short crab season up here? Understand a little about the molt and how it might be later. But only a few week opener for the year? Is is mass participation? Low crab population? Both?

Simple. It's neither of those. It is directly the result of molting occurring later in those more northern waters. The "summer season" in MA 7S opens 15 July and runs through 30 September while 7N opens 17 August and runs through 30 September.

Notice the quotes around summer season because any Dungeness crab legally harvested in Puget Sound after Labor Day must be recorded on a winter CRC.

So, 7S actually has a longer initial (summer) season than the standard 1 Jul-Labor Day while 7N does get shorted by two weeks.

Beyond that it is a matter of when WDFW actually reopens the "winter" recreational season.....will it be 1 Oct when the NT commercial season opens or the second Saturday?

Just so everyone remembers.....Staff convinced the Commission that they needed to have that extra time (1 Oct to the second Sat) to compile catch data to confirm that sufficient poundage remained of the State's half to allow an opening. Okay, sounds plausible. But then they open the NT commercials on 1 Oct to fish on that same State share they are trying to determine is adequate. Horse puckey!! If they are going to open the NT commercials then that is ipso facto confirmation that sufficient poundage remains for a winter rec season in that same management area which should open on the same date. And, if not, then other factors are at play than needing the time for working the data.