Oregon imposes new limits on Dungeness crab fishers to protect whales

(CN) — After a lengthy debate, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Commission voted late on Friday to extend and add on new rules limiting how the state’s Dungeness crab fisherman are allowed to fish, in an effort to protect whales from getting caught in their traps for the next two years.  

The crustaceans are native to the Pacific Northwest and are one of Oregon’s most profitable products, raking in more than $91 million for the state’s fisherman in the 2021-2022 season. The commission, however, passed a number of regulations in 2020, in response to concerns that migrating whale populations off the coast of Oregon were getting caught in ropes and traps known as crab pots set up by crab fishers and becoming injured or exhausted to the point that they could drown.

The measures — specifically targeted to reduce the risks of humpback and blue whales and leatherback sea turtles from getting trapped, all three of which are protected under the Federal Endangered Species Act — mandated that crab fishers reduce the amount of traps they have out, especially later in the fishing season in May, when humpback whales migrate through the state’s waters. The rule also set limits to how deep crab fishers could set their traps. 

The rules were passed with a three year time limit so the commission could gather data and decide whether to extend the rules indefinitely. On Friday, the commission voted almost unanimously, with just one member, Mary Wahl, abstaining, to extend them for another two years, adding on two new rules that restrict the amount of surface lines and other gear crab fishers are allowed to use, and setting up a program to incentivize fishers to remove old and derelict gear from the water. 

“Overall, we think that these measures will reduce the risks of entanglements and balance that risk with an economically viable crab fishery and the two can co-exist,” said John North, the deputy administrator for marine and Columbia River fisheries, while explaining the new rules to the council. 

North said that before the implementation of the rule, crab fishing nets trapped seven humpback whales, one gray whale, and one minke whale from 2013 to April 2021. After the new rules were put in place, only two humpback whales were entangled from May 2021 to 2022. 

All in all, the new rules had a low to moderate impact on the crab fishing industry, North summarized. 

But a number of local fishermen said the rules went too far, and could spell the end of Oregon’s Dungeness crab fishing industry, while one environmentalist said the rules don’t go far enough to protect whales and other endangered species. 

“Crab fishers do care about whales. They are awesome animals,” said Michael Pedis, a 46 year veteran fisherman during the commission's public comment section. He went on to say that in his decades of fishing he’s only seen one whale entangled in a crab net in the early 2000’s, and his crew spent 40 minutes trying to untangle the whale themselves. 

“Crab fishers don’t want to entangle whales. They just want to make a living,” he added. 

Other crab fishers who spoke worried that the rules would unfairly hurt small crab fishing businesses. Commission member and ex-commercial crab fisherman, Bob Spelbrink, explained that crab fishers make a majority of their income later in the fishing season, when prices are higher for crabs and they no longer have to compete with larger fishing businesses.  

Spelbrink declared that he had a possible conflict of interest before the vote, explaining that his business owns a Dungeness crab permit and has partial ownership of a crab fishing boat.    

Fisherman Gerard Reeves said the new rules had already cost him close to a quarter million dollars this year alone in lost revenue. 

Tara Brock, a staff member of OCEANA, a ocean conservation nonprofit, told the commission members that the state of Oregon is liable if an endangered animal gets caught in crab fishing gear under the Endangered Species Act because the state authorizes and manages the fishery. 

“So that’s why we’re here today, is to make sure that we’re complying with these laws and can continue to permit the Dungeness crab fishery," she said.

Brock said that the state has to get "Incidental Taking of Endangered and Threatened Species" permit, which is required if any endangered marine animal is harassed, hunted, captured, or killed incidentally. She also said that her organization has concerns about the rules because, she claimed, the commission was not taking recent data into account.

Brock emphsized that while fishing is an important industry, the whales also contribute to the state's economy, especially in coastal towns where whale watching sustains the local tourism industry.

Joe Mullhey, a fisherman with three boats said, “Several years ago, the future of fisheries in general looked really good to me. I thought, you know, my dad built a boat and gave me the opportunity to run it and continue in this industry, and I was hoping to do the same for my kids. It’s starting to become hard to believe that we are going to have a future the way things are going.”

“This most recent year in particular, we’ve seen a higher participation in the springtime fishery than I’ve ever seen in my life,” Mullhey added. “And with that higher participation we have not seen an entanglement, so when we all talk about science, the science says to me that the 20% reduction is not necessary because we’re not seeing entanglements with the higher volume of pots around. The one thing that I would stress, if possible, is whatever decision you make, please don’t make it permanent. Let’s look at this again in three or four years, and if we don’t have any more issues, maybe we can have something back that we’ve lost.” 

The Commission promised to come back in two years and review the data collected on the effects of the new rules. 

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