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Commercial Dungeness fishery delayed off Oregon Coast The traditional Dec. 1 crab season opener will be delayed until at least until Dec. 16. [123rf.com] Thursday Nov 16, 2017 at 1:38 PM Nov 16, 2017 at 5:39 PM Mark Freeman Mail Tribune @MTwriterFreeman The start of Oregon's lucrative commercial Dungeness crab season will be delayed until at least mid-December to allow offshore crab time to fatten up. Coastwide lags in Dungeness meat-content tests means the traditional Dec. 1 season opener will be delayed until at least until Dec. 16 to ensure high-quality crabs make it to consumers, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. None of the test sites off the Oregon Coast found crabs fat enough to allow for the traditional opener, ODFW reported. It is the third straight year the crab fleet has been kept in port in early December, with the last two years seeing delays due to unsafe domoic acid levels in Dungeness, said Kelly Corbett, ODFW's commercial crab project leader. The last time the season was delayed to allow crab time to fill out was in 2013-14, Corbett said. The last season to open on time coastwide was in 2014, she said. More tests are expected later this month to determine whether Oregon's commercial crab fleet can start pulling their pots Dec. 16 or continue waiting into January, thereby missing the lucrative holiday season demand. That last happened in the 2015-16 season, when domoic acid levels kept the commercial fleet at bay into January, records show. The Oregon fleet sports 425 ships with crabbing permits, with 320 boats landing crab in Oregon ports last season, Corbett said. Commercial Dungeness crab is by far Oregon’s most valuable fishery. Last year’s season opener was also delayed, but the 20.4 million pounds of Dungeness landed fetched a record $62.7 million to the fleet. Last year's landings were about 22 percent higher than the 10-year average, according to ODFW. The delay of the season opener is independent of the current ban on all crab harvests off Southern Oregon and parts of the central Oregon coast because of high levels of domoic acid found now in Dungeness. The current ban involves all beach, bays and estuaries from the California border north to Coos Bay's north jetty, as well as waters from Tahkenitch Creek north of Winchester Bay to Cape Foulweather near Newport. That leaves only Winchester Bay open now for sport crabbers. The ocean is closed in November to all crabbing. Some Oregon bays are now open to commercial Dungeness crab fishing, and those currently not affected by the domoic acid closure will close Dec. 1. — Reach Mail Tribune reporter Mark Freeman at 541-776-4470 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MTwriterFreeman.