Economic slide down is forcing many fishermen to fish solo as they can no longer afford crew members. Going solo adds greater risk to an already perilous endeavor, said Monterey Harbormaster Steve Scheiblauer. He further said that commercial fishing is the most dangerous profession in the United States. It is found that on Nov 3, David Kubiak, a Morro Bay fisherman well-known in Monterey, died when he was fishing alone. Last year, Tommy Joe Jones of Moss Landing died in similar circumstances.
It is fact that the lack of a salmon season in recent years has put fishermen under severe financial pressure. Sometimes that means fishermen, eager to make up their losses, will take more risks during crab season. Rick Sullivan of Moss Landing said that the actual physical dangers on the boat are the same as they have been since the beginning of crabbing. He told that many fishermen who fish locally, fish alone once or twice a year when the weather is good even when the weather is good, things happen then too — there are dangers everywhere you look.
The first two weeks of the crabbing season can be the most dangerous. Boats are laden with pots, making them susceptible to rolling over. Sullivan informed that their traps weigh 100 pounds apiece, and you start stacking 50, 60 traps on the back of your boat and all of a sudden you have 5,000 pounds above gravity and the boats are just not very stable.
Meager savings and increasing costs have led many fishermen to get out of the industry, Scheiblauer said. Fishing on the Central Coast is most certainly biologically sustainable, but it is not economically sustainable.
