Some of the first news to come out of the impending Dungeness season, which starts Saturday: Apparently crabbers are not optimistic about their haul this year. From the Examiner:

Bumper hauls in recent years could mean less from this year’s harvest, California Department of Fish and Game marine biologist Peter Kalvass said.

“It goes through a natural cycle,” Kalvass said. “Based on the trend over the last couple of seasons, it looks like we’re probably in more of an average or perhaps slightly below-average catch year.”

The slim pickings caught by recreational fishers since their season began at the start of this month appear to confirm predictions of a poor season, but the real test will come once commercial crabbers head into the waters.

Previously:
Timmy, There Is No Dungeness [MPSF]
Deadliest Catch? [MPSF]
And They're Off [MPSF]

[Photo: Via ian ransley/flickr]

We've been trying to avoid piling on the Cosco Busan coverage now that the San Francisco Bay fisheries are open (especially Dungeness!), but we feel compelled to bring you this punctuating moment in the saga.

Remember? This is the ship that crashed into one of the Bay Bridge towers, spilling 58,000 gallons of fuel oil into the Bay, which the Coast Guard didn't tell us about for hours and hours. Then the state had to close the waters in and around the bay for fishing right at the start of crab season. Yeah, you remember.

Well, the ship set sail yesterday and cleared both bridges on its way to Tsingtao, China. It was nice to see the stern, and we hope never to see any other part of the ship again. Don't let the Golden Gate hit you on the way out, Busan!

The Coastguard videotaped the Busan's departure. We've added a soundtrack (you have to push "play" manually). Enjoy.

Patched-up Cosco Busan sails out of bay, lawsuits in its wake [SF Chronicle]

Somebody started an obligatory thread on Chowhound the other day asking about where to pick up local crab. Well, after a late start to the season and a stormy weekend, the crustaceans are finally here and the Chowhounds are piping up. You know we love Sun Fat on Mission, but this thread contains good tips city-and region-wide. Prices at the time of this post were hovering around $3.50 on the low end, according to Chowhounds.

Local Crabs are Coming [Chowhound]

The U.S. Coast Guard announced Wednesday that it has suspended the search for two men who disappeared with their Crabbing boat the Good Guys, off the San Mateo County coast Tuesday. The men first went missing at about 1:30 p.m. when they lost communication with another boat near which they were crabbing.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Officials said there was little hope that Hannaberg and Davis, described by family and friends as experienced sport fishermen, would be found alive.

"At this point, it's not very likely" they survived, said Dan Temko, master of the Pillar Point Harbor near Half Moon Bay, where the 25-foot fiberglass boat that Hannaberg owned was berthed. "Unless they were in a life raft or emergency suits, it would be very difficult to survive through the night."

The tragedy serves as a reminder that the price we pay for our prized local Dungeness comes from more than just our checking accounts. In this case, the families of Benjamin Hannaberg, 58, and James Davis, 57, of San Leandro, have lost their relatives. Our hearts are with them.

On Nov. 7, the good folks over at FecalFace published an unfortunately-timed photo essay detailing a trip to Sun Fat seafood market for Dungeness crab, followed by useful instructions on how to cook and clean the local aquatic treats.

That same day, the Cosco Busan freighter bumped into a Bay Bridge piling and spilled 58,000 gallons of fuel oil into the Bay, and all of a sudden, nobody had an appetite for local shellfish.

Now, nearly a month later, the Guv has lifted the ban on crabbing and fishing in and around the mouth of the SF Bay, and the commercial fleet has begun fishing.

This seems a good time to send hungry seafood fans back in time and Intenet-tubes to the original post, detailing the whole crab-dinner process. They've even got a movie showing how to gut the thing. Salut!

Eat Some Dungeness [FecalFace]

Above: The deliciously near future

This is it, folks, the official green light for crab season. The Guv lifted the crabbing and fishing ban for the San Francisco Bay and coastline yesterday, and today crabbers are heading out to sea with their pots, just in time for the holidays and a nice stocking full of Dungeness.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger lifted the ban after tests of crabs and other seafood showed "no ill effects from the fuel oil spill three weeks ago," the Chronicle reported, but state fish and game officials are still warning residents to avoid mussels and oysters harvested in contaminated areas.

Schwarzenegger imposed the ban six days after the Cosco Busan freighter hit a Bay Bridge piling Nov. 7, spilling 58,000 gallons of fuel oil in the bay. Crabbing grounds more than three miles offshore remained open, but Bay Area crabbers opted not to fish, fearing that even the smallest contamination scare could ruin the season.

Here's what the Fish and Game department had to say, from the Chroncile:

"We have been advised and have concluded that the fishery is safe and that all existing seasons can resume according to existing laws," said John McCamman, acting director of the California Department of Fish and Game, announcing the end of the ban that began Nov. 13.

"There is a possibility of residual oil remaining in the water, and it could remain over the next couple of months. We urge fishermen to use common sense. If it looks like oil and smells like oil and tastes like oil, you don't want to eat it," McCamman said.

So there you go, fish all you want, but please don't eat the oil. Sounds good to us. It's still a hard time for the Drake's Bay Oyster Co., however, as the Marin County company is the only fishery that remains under a ban.

State lifts ban on fishing, crabbing after S.F. Bay oil spill [San Francisco Chronicle]
California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assesment

Looks like the Dungeness debate will be heating up again, just in time for Thanksgiving. According to the Chronicle, two Oregon-based fishing boats caught a massive (100,000 lb) crab haul near the Farallones, unloaded it in Monterey (San Francisco is still closed to crab boats) sold it to wholesaler Royal Seafood, which is trucking it up to San Francisco right now.

The waters in the bay and just off the coast from Marin to about Half Moon Bay are closed to all kinds of fishing in the wake of the Cosco Busan oil spill, but further offshore, the crabbing grounds are open. Local crabbers, however, have been refusing to drop pots, saying they want to wait until the crab is tested by the state. From the Chron:

"The whole thing is totally disheartening," said Larry Collins, president of the San Francisco Crab Boat Owners Association. "We're trying to do the right thing here. We need to know the crab are safe before they get to the buyers and consumers."

The local crabbers are worried that if consumers get sick from contaminated crab early in the season, nobody will want to buy the catch at all later or anytime. According to the article, one Half Moon Bay crabber brought back a small catch, and was met at the dock by other local crabbers, who bought the catch and set it free on the condition the guy refrain from fishing until the state gives the all clear.

We wonder if they'll try the carrot or the stick with the Oregon guys.

A huge catch of crab off the Farallones is offloaded in Monterey [San Francisco Chronicle]

According to KCBS early this morning, a portion of the Dungeness fishery not affected by the Cosco Busan oil spill is open to commercial fishing. However, no local crabbers from Sonoma to San Mateo have reportedly gone out, the Chronicle reported this afternoon.

Commercial boats take in seawater from outside to keep their catch alive, so if they travel through contaminated water, the crabs become contaminated. Fears of contamination, even a perceived threat of contamination, kept boats in the harbor Thursday. From the Chron:

"All our guys are holding," San Francisco Crab Boat Owners Association president Larry Collins said. "No one is fishing for crab and no one is buying crab."

The same held true at Half Moon Bay and Bodega Bay, where harbors masters confirmed that crab boats were at the docks, with pots still stacked...

As of this afternoon, the harbor masters at Half Moon Bay's Pillar Point and Spud Point at Bodega Bay had neither seen nor heard from the boats.

The state-mandated closure stretches from Pt. Reyes in the north to Pedro Point in the south, three miles offshore and all bay waters west of the Carquinez Bridge. Many local crabbers could fish, but have opted not to because of pollution concerns.

Crab Season Begins Despite Oil Spill Worries [KCBS]
No one fishing for crab [San Francisco Chronicle]

There's a weekend in mid-December, not any particular one, but usually before the big holiday whirlwind, that always makes us giddy. It's the day, about a month into crab season, that the Dungeness catch has been coming in so strong that places like Koreana Plaza and Sun Fat have to sell the crabs really cheap to make room in their tanks.

That's the day we boil several gallons of water, whip up some chowder and instruct friends to show up with bottles of beer and grubby clothing to spend an evening getting elbow-deep in the local Dungeness catch.

Well, it looks like that evening event won't be happening this year. Thanks very much, Cosco Busan. On Saturday, the commercial crabbers voted to postpone the season indefinitely. From the Chronicle:

"If there's even the slightest taint of fuel either on the crab or in the holding tanks, we won't touch it because we won't be able to sell it," said seafood processor Angel Cincotta, who along with her mother and sisters runs the Alioto-Lazio Fish and Crab Co. on Jefferson Street at San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf. "The customer will not buy it and we wouldn't expect them to."

The Crab Boat Owners Association voted to postpone the start of the commercial season, and is asking Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to extend the restriction to sport fishers and out-of-towners as well, the Chronicle reported, but some sport fishers aren't taking it so well. In the comments following the story, somebody identified as Captjohnsmith, who would appear to be a sport fishing captain, wrote:

The commercial crabbers have a problem because they need to circulate sea water in their holds to keep the crabs alive after they have caught them at sea. Since they must navigate into the bay to get to their docks, they may go through the oil spill, which could cause contamination of the crabs in their holds. There is NO WAY that crabs at the crabbing grounds will get even an infinitesimal exposure to the oil from this spill. The only reason they don't the sports crabbers to keep crabbing is that they compete for the same resource-- so it's all about money and greed.

After the Coast Guard apparently sat around on their thumbs for about 12 hours after the crash, reporting that just 140 gallons of oil had spilled instead of the 58,000 that ended up in the water, we're wondering who will be investigating that organization.

On an unrelated note: Anybody want to buy 12 pounds of butter and a large steel pot?

Spill's widespread impact [San Francisco Chronicle]
Criminal probe opens in Calif. oil spill [Associated Press]
Feinstein blasts response to oil spill

Well, here it is, the news we've been dreading: The Chron's reporting that this big, nasty oil spill that resulted from a cargo ship smacking into a Bay Bridge piling, is expected to mess up fishing and crabbing. Dammit, dammit dammit!

The Chron:

Bunker fuel from the Cosco Busan spill not only has drifted right over many of the prime fishing spots in the main bay but also into the Pacific, where it is impacting prime salmon and crabbing water before it washes ashore along the Marin coastline...

"There's a good chance we would postpone the season if the spill extends over the crab grounds," [Crab Boat Owners Association President Larry] Collins said. "I'm just one fisherman, but I think we should postpone it. If the crab come up through the fuel, they could be contaminated."

Okay, well, better they postpone the season than start selling oily crab, but this is still a colossal disappointment. As you may have noticed, we were kind of looking forward to the scheduled opener next Thursday. According to the Chron, the association is meeting Saturday afternoon to decide on what to do.

Stay tuned...

Spill mucking up sport fishing, might impact crab season [San Francisco Chronicle]

Here's an update from the Chronicle's resident outdoorsman Tom Stienstra. Looks like they're pulling in good numbers of crabs in the first week of the sport season. One week from today, the commercial season opens, to the delight of crustacean connoisseurs region-wide.

Disturbingly, the optimistic crabbing article shared space today with a big story about all the oil dumped into the bay after a cargo ship hit the Bay Bridge. Following on the heels of a study that found already high levels of mercury in local waters, what will the spill mean for crab season? Should we be nervous?

Well, since much of the local crab catch actually comes from outside the Gate, we're going to go ahead and dust off the big, steel pot and lay in a hopeful supply of butter. Cross your fingers everyone.

Bonanza off Pillar Point [San Francisco Chronicle]

Do you hear that giant slurping sound? That's us licking our chops in a big way because... are you ready?... Crab season opens tomorrow. Hell yes. Crab season. We get very giddy this time of year because, outside of a good al pastor super burrito, local Dungeness might just be our favorite food ever.

But we risk getting your hopes up: if you want to eat fresh crab next week you're going to have to catch it yourself, or know somebody who has. The commercial season starts mid-month, so only sport fishers will be hoisting up pots for the next couple of weeks. Check back here for more information on the commercial opening.

The Chronicle's Brian Hoffman relates some interesting gossip on the upcoming season in the fishing report. Apparently there's a chance the big, industrial out-of-towners won't come down? We don't know what that will do to prices, but stay tuned. We're sure to find out.

Also, the first crab festival of the season takes place at the end of the month. It's being put on by Slow Food San Francisco, and includes local fishing delegates.

The Fishing Report [San Francisco Chronicle]
2007 Ocean Sport Fishing Regulations [California Department of Fish and Game]