{"id":23139,"date":"2025-09-02T13:23:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T13:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/?p=23139"},"modified":"2025-09-02T13:23:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T13:23:12","slug":"rope-less-crab-fishing-gear-redeeming-californias-dungeness-fishery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/09\/02\/rope-less-crab-fishing-gear-redeeming-californias-dungeness-fishery\/","title":{"rendered":"Rope-less crab fishing gear redeeming California\u2019s Dungeness fishery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Three years of trialing rope-less or \u201cpop-up\u201d fishing gear in California\u2019s restricted Dungeness crab areas are showing reliable outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Positive feedback so far in 2025 has come from fishermen who crabbed late into June beyond the normal commercial fishing timeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of these is Brand Little, who acclaimed his chance to fish until late June, extending the usual April 9 closure.&nbsp;<em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In his part, expert Geoff Schester, PhD, told\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ksbw.com\/article\/ropeless-fishing-gear-californias-crab-industry\/65939513\"><u>KSBW Action<\/u><\/a>\u00a0of a successful first full commercial use of &#8220;pop-up&#8221; gear this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Schester cites that the 25,000 traps with GPS pop-up lines that featured in 2025\u2019s trials scored a 98% reliability degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the 123 boating trips of the April 9-June 30, 2025 run, all strings in thousands of traps stayed intact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-why-rope-less-gear\"><strong>Why Rope-less Gear?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The fact that no strings disappeared in the course of the foregoing 2-month session forms the heart of rope-less deployments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Conversely, roped traps have gained notoriety for entangling right whales. This forced the\u00a0California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) in 2021 to\u00a0<a href=\" www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2024\/01\/19\/first-dungeness-crab-harvest-lands-in-california\"><u>shorten\u00a0the commercial season<\/u><\/a>\u00a0to January, henceforth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Frequent closures, the shortening of seasons and sometimes limited quotas all cost commercial crabbers economic hardships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The current season delayed by a month while 2024\u2019s allowed only&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalfisherman.com\/ropeless-gear-trial-divides-california-crab-fishery\"><u>50%<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;of normal landing volumes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For rope-free fishing, the reverse is true: in the April-June 2024 trials, 19 eligible fishers made 277 trips using 23,048 &#8220;pop-up&#8221; gear. They caught 229,000 pounds of crabs worth $1.6 million, which coincided with off-season summer\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/insights\/prices\/united-states-of-america\/crabs\/\"><u>prices<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is such gains and the high success rate of the \u201cpop-up\u201d system that makes rope-less crab fishing gear promising. The statistics below examine the wide range of crabbing equipment in use today before the coming of the detached types.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-california-crab-fishing-gear-statistics\"><strong>California Crab Fishing Gear&nbsp;<\/strong><strong>Statistics&nbsp;<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Crabbing gear in California are a key part of any professional fisher as they are entrenched in the law. According to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (<a href=\"https:\/\/wildlife.ca.gov\/Licensing\/Fishing\"><u>CDFW<\/u><\/a>), Dungeness fishers need valid crab traps under section 29.80 (c) of CCR\/ T14 while recreational fishers can employ crab loop traps or hook nets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Traps normally weigh between\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/marinesanctuary.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/California-Commercial-Fishing-Gear-Innovations-Workshop-Summary-August-24-2022.pdf\"><u>80 and 100 pounds<\/u><\/a>\u00a0each. If a crabber is using multiple traps, they may need to long-line them for single-point hauling. Thus, apart from crab traps, lines are essential.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On top of paying resident fishing license fees, fishermen also purchase crab gear in the $300-1000 range. Traditional crab pots normally average from as little as $56 to as much as $300, according to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/fishingandfish.com\/how-much-money-crab-fishing-equipment\/\"><u>Fishing and Fish.<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;Other major costs include those for traps, which sometimes reach $150 apiece. &nbsp;Lines, on the other hand, go for as little as $15 to $50 per 100 feet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three years of trialing rope-less or \u201cpop-up\u201d fishing gear in California\u2019s restricted Dungeness crab areas are showing reliable outcomes. Positive feedback so far in 2025 has come from fishermen who crabbed late into June beyond the normal commercial fishing timeline. One of these is Brand Little, who acclaimed his chance to fish until late June,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19784,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v16.3 (Yoast SEO v20.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Rope-less crab fishing gear redeeming California\u2019s Dungeness fishery - Selina Wamucii | Food &amp; Agriculture News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/09\/02\/rope-less-crab-fishing-gear-redeeming-californias-dungeness-fishery\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rope-less crab fishing gear redeeming California\u2019s Dungeness fishery - Selina Wamucii | Food &amp; Agriculture News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Three years of trialing rope-less or \u201cpop-up\u201d fishing gear in California\u2019s restricted Dungeness crab areas are showing reliable outcomes. Positive feedback so far in 2025 has come from fishermen who crabbed late into June beyond the normal commercial fishing timeline. One of these is Brand Little, who acclaimed his chance to fish until late June,...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/09\/02\/rope-less-crab-fishing-gear-redeeming-californias-dungeness-fishery\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Selina Wamucii | Food &amp; Agriculture News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-02T13:23:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-02T13:23:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Sanc1683_-_Flickr_-_NOAA_Photo_Library.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Timothy Wahome\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Timothy Wahome\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/09\/02\/rope-less-crab-fishing-gear-redeeming-californias-dungeness-fishery\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/09\/02\/rope-less-crab-fishing-gear-redeeming-californias-dungeness-fishery\/\",\"name\":\"Rope-less crab fishing gear redeeming California\u2019s Dungeness fishery - Selina Wamucii | Food &amp; Agriculture News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-02T13:23:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-02T13:23:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c0aad9a1f85037798080d75b4302cf8\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/09\/02\/rope-less-crab-fishing-gear-redeeming-californias-dungeness-fishery\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/09\/02\/rope-less-crab-fishing-gear-redeeming-californias-dungeness-fishery\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/09\/02\/rope-less-crab-fishing-gear-redeeming-californias-dungeness-fishery\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Rope-less crab fishing gear redeeming California\u2019s Dungeness fishery\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Selina Wamucii | Food & Agriculture News\",\"description\":\"Discover the Latest in Food and Agriculture.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c0aad9a1f85037798080d75b4302cf8\",\"name\":\"Timothy Wahome\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/636da6c8288b7dcaef01a42b50c3bc41?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/636da6c8288b7dcaef01a42b50c3bc41?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Timothy Wahome\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/author\/twt4wahomegmail-com\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Rope-less crab fishing gear redeeming California\u2019s Dungeness fishery - Selina Wamucii | Food &amp; Agriculture News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/09\/02\/rope-less-crab-fishing-gear-redeeming-californias-dungeness-fishery\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Rope-less crab fishing gear redeeming California\u2019s Dungeness fishery - Selina Wamucii | Food &amp; Agriculture News","og_description":"Three years of trialing rope-less or \u201cpop-up\u201d fishing gear in California\u2019s restricted Dungeness crab areas are showing reliable outcomes. 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