More Waiting Than Fishing On Crab Season's Opening Day

Today is opening day of crab season, but the only fishermen hauling in crabs this morning off their private boats at Pillar Point Harbor are the sport fishermen, not their commercial counterparts.

Jim Griffith of Redwood City lifted a bucket full of crab up off the dock from his boat the Maria Louise. He put his pots in last Friday and by 8:30 a.m. this morning brought in 20 crabs.

"The quality of the crabs seem excellent this season," said Griffith, a crab fisherman since 1955.

Still, gaggles of commercial fishermen in rubber boats and baseball caps gather at the pier and around their boats loaded with crab pots, just waiting. The boats are primed for dropping pots and the harbor is poised for crab customers, yet "it's an usually quiet start to the season," admits fisherman Rusty Boro of Shingle Springs, Calif.

"You won't see any commercial fisherman out there just yet because there's a discrepancy going on right now," said Moss Beach resident Rex Prather, walking his dog on the docks. "See all those boats?" he said pointing his finger beyond the Harbormaster's office at the Pillar Point Harbor. "They're supposed to be out there right now since today is the legal day they can pull up the pots and bring the crab in."

Instead, the commercial fishermen are waiting, and talk of price and quality of the crab are topics of their conversation.

"It's a little bit of game we have to play right now," explains Boro, whose boat Be-Be rocks idly at the dock. "You see, we're waiting to hear about the quality of the crab."

By mid-afternoon today Boro and all the other commercial waiting by their boats will receive word from the Bodega Bay, San Francisco and Half Moon Bay port if the crab is meaty enough to justify their time spent fishing and the price per pound they expect for their efforts.

"We all want $1.75 per pound and so the buyers have to agree to pay for this as well before we set out," said San Jose resident and fisherman Walt Doll of the Judy Kay. "If the quality is bad, then the buyers will lower the price so we want to know beforehand that there's hearty crab out there before going out. We don't want to put bad quality crab on the market either," said Doll, "so it's a wait and see issue right now."

Because Half Moon Bay is part of District 10, which encompasses the area from Point Arena to the Mexican border, testing the quality of the crab falls on the shoulders of the fishermen.

"It's ridiculous that fishermen have to do what the State of California should be doing," said Boro. "We are considered the lower end of the chain when it comes to crab fishing here because traditionally we were never considered a decent crab district. It's only been in the past 15 years that we've established ourselves as a crab district."

Local fishermen credit the good health of the bay for the abundance of crab in the area.

"It's a good sign that our ocean is so healthy and the resources are in good shape for crab fishing," said Doll.

At the start of the season, three boats are sent out to test the crab from Bodgea Bay, San Francisco and Half Moon Bay.

"The Half Moon Bay Market Association pays for a fisherman to go out," said Doll. "The owner of Pale Horse usually goes because he's the safest and fastest boat here."

The three boats all drop six pots each on an overnight set.

"They'll get 35-40 crabs in each pot," said Boro. "And then all the crab goes to a laboratory in Santa Rosa where they weigh them and cook them. If 25 percent of the original weight is good meat, then it's a go, we're out of here, and all you'll see is smoke behind us."

When they come in, though, the haggling between retail and wholesale over price begins.

Fresh-caught live crab is sold by some of the fisherman retail "off-the-boat" to the public at Pillar Point Harbor. For cleaned and cracked crab, cooked or live, people can buy it directly at Princeton Seafood Company Fish Market located at the harbor as well.

"Every year it's the same thing of just waiting for the first boats to come in," said Randy Haake, manager of Princeton Seafood Company Fish Market, who hopes to sell 200 to 300 pounds of crab by closing at 6 p.m. today.

"We all want the opening of the season to be a financial success for everyone involved, but we also don't want to lose money on the situation."

Haake is confident that the quality of the crab once it comes in will be good because "I was seeing sport crab packed with meat and there seems to be an abundance of crab out there right now," he said.

"The waiting part and negotiating the price is stressful for everyone involved," Haake said, "but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll have lots of crab to sell tonight."