It is said that the crabs, which tend to congregate close to Half Moon Bay at this time of year, are too small for commercial fishers’ regulation minimum 6¼ inches wide. Half Moon Bay fisherman Duncan MacLean informed that he and his fellow commercial crabbers are not feeling optimistic about their season.
Party boat Captain Allen Chin has made a couple of runs out of Pillar Point Harbor since Nov. 1 with customers on his boat, the Tigerfish. They caught all the crabs they wanted, but he says the commercial season will be “pretty grim” based on all the undersized crabs he’s seen. It si said that this season there won’t be enough local crabs to go around as soon as the out-of-town crab boats descend on the Bay Area to compete for the bounty.
As said that last winter’s crab season was disappointing. The crabbers earned $2.25 per pound as they raced to bring in as many crabs as they could. The prices increased to $7 per pound later in the season as Dungeness crab became extremely scarce, but most of the crabbers by then had tied up their boats for the season.
