Commercial tribal crabbing opened in recreational zones

In San Juan County there have traditionally been areas restricted to recreational crabbing. However, they have recently been opened to tribal commercial crabbing, and this has some recreational crabbers worried that the resource will be depleted.

According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), the areas were opened to help the tribal commercial crabbers reach their quota.

As it stands, the total share of crab is divided among tribal, non-tribal and recreational crabbers. Fifty percent of the total catch is allotted to the tribal commercial crabbers, while the remaining 50 percent is split between the non-tribal commercial crabbers and the recreational crabbers.

Non-commercial zones have been in place in the San Juan Islands for the last eight years. They include Fisherman Bay and Mud Bay on Lopez Island, Garrison Bay on San Juan Island and East Sound on Orcas Island. However, non-commercial crabbing zones are designated each season through negotiations during preseason planning between treaty and non-treaty fisheries. The Rafeedie Decision, a Federal Court ruling, recognizes treaty shellfishing rights in Washington State and gives tribal commercial crabbers the right to fish in any of these areas. The ruling does not not include any previsions for the establishment of non-commercial zones; rather, they are established through negotiations with the tribes.

The tribes requested that these non-commercial zones be re-opened to tribal crabbing as a way of evening the catch between themselves and the non-tribal commercial and recreational crabbers.

According to WDFW numbers, the tribal crabbers are currently 330,000 pounds behind the non-tribal commercial and recreational crabbers. The average recreational crab catch in the San Juan Islands, for an eight-to-nine month season, is 360,000 pounds. For 2003, which lasted only about three and a half months, recreational crabbers brought in approximately 550,000 pounds of crab. Recreational crabbing closed Nov. 15, when WDFW realized that recreational crabbing had gone more than 190,000 pounds over what WDFW targeted its season catch to be.

At this time, there are no set numbers for the division of crab between non-tribal commercial and recreational crabbers.

Bob Porter, Lopez Island Port Commissioner, has serious concerns about the opening of non-commercial zones to the tribes, especially those in Fisherman Bay and Mud Bay on Lopez. Porter feels these bays cannot support commercial crabbing. “This is an unacceptable decision and one that will have a severe reaction. If this is an attempt to equalize allocation, then all resemblance of common sense has been abandoned. This bay (Fisherman Bay) will not support a commercial fishery,” said Bob Porter, Lopez Island Port Commissiner.

“Twice in the past, Fisherman Bay was opened to commercial fishing and within a short time the harvest diminished and the commercial pulled out. It was over three years before this closed bay recovered,” Porter said.

Porter says everyone he has talked to feels that WFDW’s decision to open the non-commercial zones threatens the resource. “They said thumbs down,” Porter explained. He also commented that most people are unaware of the opening.

Lisa Veneroso, Shellfish Policy Coordinator of the WDFW, admitted that she didn’t know how much crab was harvested in individual bays, but she challenged Porter’s statement, saying it is “not reflected in the overall region.” She did say, however, that the crab catch in the San Juan Islands has increased in the last few years.

In a Dec. 19 e-mail to Porter, Veneroso addressed the issue of future impacts on the Fisherman Bay crab population. “...It is not likely that the majority of Dungeness crab are resident to a specific bay,” she wrote. Adult crab tend to aggregate during mating and, once the process is complete, the males move to deeper water. “We expect to see a return of crab into the bay as a result of migratory patterns,” Veneroso said.

The crab population is also sustained because of size limits and an outright ban on harvesting female crab. Only adult male crab are harvested, leaving the females and juveniles to reproduce.

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