Following a belated January 15, 2025 start, the Washington Dungeness crab season has quickly garnered price value amid roaring currents.
The very first haul in mid-January instantly fetched $5.75 a pound and edged the previous 2021-22 season’s record of $5.19.
This season began with strong seas along Long Beach Peninsula but fishermen still managed to land jumbo and 2-pounders.
It is also clear that the landings are currently at a slow pace and will continue to be so due to low catches. Apparently, poor meat yield was the reason the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife had postponed the season’s start.
Enter California’s Crabbers
Relaxed rules and prices however have attracted California’s veteran crabbers to buy license further north in Washington waters.
Like Washington, California opened its Dungeness crab quite late on January 5, for north San Francisco Bay. The reason for the delay was to let whale migration run its course unharmed.
It is this whale protection and total catch restrictions that have seen Californians try a place for their pots further north.
California’s official Dungeness crab season runs November 2, 2024 to July 30, 2025, for north and south Sonoma coastlines. However, crabbers can only legally catch 10 crabs a day, each at least 5 3/4 inches long.
Washington’s Restrictions
Washington on the other hand allows daily bag limits of 6 hard-shell males measuring over 6 inches long, along certain bays. In interior waters like the all-important Columbia River, the limit doubles to 12 hard-shell male crabs.
In the 2023-24 season, Columbia River’s northern area up to Westport landed over 10 million pounds or 60% of the state’s total.
The most restricted area is Puget Sound, a 100-mile long estuary in the northwest Washington’s coast. Here, crabbers must always carry catch record cards with them to account for their harvest figures.
Overall, this year’s slow start is seeing catches having as much as 23% meat percentage, which is good according to crabbers. For more bits like these on the Washington Dungeness crab scene, skim the statistics below.
Washington Dungeness Crab Statistics
Besides being a commercial activity, crab fishing in Washington doubles as a recreational activity. According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), recreational fishermen catch 1.5 million pounds of crabs, including Dungeness, annually.
Perhaps the most important crab species in Washington is the Dungeness crab (Metacarcinus magister). The state produced its highest commercial catch in the 2022-23 season at 28.7 million pounds, per local government’s figures. While this was more than 10 million pounds of the 2021-22 season, there was no repeat in the 2023-24 season.
How do tribal landings fare in Washington’s Dungeness Crab fisheries?
In the 2022-23 season, tribal catches represented 1/6th of the total catches at 4.6 million pounds. Most tribal pots and traps are placed in the Puget Sound estuary, a coastal inlet in northwest Washington.
How does Puget Sound performs the best for Dungeness crabs?
Between 1991 and 2022, Puget Sound fisheries have consistently landed between 2 and 11 million pounds per year of this species. This according to WDFW.
How valuable is Puget Sound’s Dungeness crab harvest?
Tribal and state fishing of Dungeness crabs in Puget Sound brought between $2 and $14 million annually between 1990 and 2017. The best year in this period was 2015 at $14 million while the lowest 1991 at just over $2 million.