Dungeness Crab Season Delayed After Price Negotiations Break Down

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Crab pots remain on dry land while crabbers and processors haggle over quality and price.

​The local Dungeness season is unexpectedly on hold, after crabbers delayed the start of the Central California commercial fishing season. The issue? Price. Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, says the three main local crab associations had come close to reaching an agreement with processors over the price of Dungeness late last week. Then in the 11th hour, says Grader, some processors reneged on the deal, expressing doubts about the quality of crabs from the Central Coast region. Groups including the San Francisco Bay Crab Boat Owners' Association have pulled sample crustaceans from various points along the coast, and will determine later today if the quality ― the ratio of meat to total body weight ― is good or only middling.

Carrie Wilson, a marine biologist with the state's Department of Fish and Game, tells SFoodie it's in crabbers' best interest to make sure the crabs they pull in get a good price. Though the Central California season technically ends in June, in fact the Dungeness fishery closes when all crabs of the minimum size have been caught. "Most of it occurs in the first month," Wilson says. Monterey Seafood's Paul Johnson says local Dungeness might not begin showing up in shops and restaurants till Nov. 22 ― just in time for Thanksgiving, when demand is steepest.

Are last-minute moves and delays like the ones that went down this weekend uncommon? Not at all, says Grader. "We're so used to these problems. A couple of years ago it was the [Cosco Busan] oil spill, we've had price disagreements in most years."

By law, fishermen's organizations are allowed to collectively bargain with the processors to determine an across-the-board price for California Dungeness. But while the crabbers can negotiate as a group, the seafood companies must submit individual market orders ― the lowest price accepted then essentially becomes the season's going price.