Recreational crabbers will again be able to set their pots in the waters of the South Sound beginning Monday. Marine areas 11 (Tacoma-Vashon Island) and 13 (South Puget Sound) will reopen for sport crabbing at 8 a.m.
The sports crab fishery throughout Puget Sound shut down after Labor Day to allow the state Department of Fish and Wildlife to assess the summer catch.
While most areas of Puget Sound reopened to crabbing on Oct. 8, the South Sound winter season was delayed because of harvest disparities this summer between the sport and tribal crabbers, said Tony Floor of the Northwest Marine Trade Association.
The summer sport harvest from July to Labor Day was 57,000 pounds, compared with 45,000 pounds for the tribal fishery, Floor said. The catch in the Olympia area had exceeded the area’s quota. Federal court rulings call for an equal harvest between the two groups.
Steve Burton, shellfish biologist with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife said staffers negotiated with the tribes to have a limited season to include Thanksgiving and Christmas.
“We didn’t have enough quota for a full season, “ Burton said.
In both areas, crabbing will be allowed seven days a week through Dec. 31. Marine Area 11 runs from the northern tip of Vashon Island to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Area 13 is all the waters south of the bridge.
The daily catch limit is five Dungeness crab, males only, in hard-shell condition with a minimum carapace width of 61/4 inches. In addition, anglers may catch six red rock crab of either sex per day, provided those crab measure at least 5 inches across.
All crab caught in the late-season fishery must be recorded on winter catch cards, which are valid until Dec. 31. Winter cards are available at license vendors across the state. Those catch reports are due to the department by Feb. 1.
Sport crabbing did not reopen this year in marine areas 10 (Seattle/Bremerton Area), 12 (Hood Canal) and the part of marine area 9 south of line that extends from Olele Point to Foulweather Bluff. The annual quotas in those areas were reached during the summer fishery.
More information is available on the department’s website at wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/shellfish/crab.
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