Crescent City Profile - California Sea Grant

was implemented. The northern crab seasonusually runs from December 1 through July15 (with an early season opener off SanFrancisco starting November 15), but its starthas been delayed in some years because ofprice disputes. In addition, the opening of theseason may be delayed to insure that the crabshave completed molting, as occurred in 2005.In 2009, pursuant to SB 1690 (2008), the stateconvened a Dungeness Crab Task Force inresponse to concerns about recent increasesin participation and gear use. Following therecommendation of the Task Force (CaliforniaDungeness Crab Task Force 2010), a bill thatwould establish a pilot crab pot allocationprogram to address those concerns (SB 1039,Wiggins) is pending in the State Legislature.Recreational Fishery ManagementConcerns regarding Klamath fall Chinookand coho have influenced management of therecreational salmon fisheries in the CrescentCity area. Many of the factors that haveconstrained the KMZ commercial fishery alsohave affected the recreational ocean salmonfishery. However, due to its lesser impact onKlamath fall Chinook, the KMZ recreationalfishery has generally been less constrained thanthe KMZ commercial fishery, although more sothan the recreational salmon fishery elsewherein the state.In 1979, the KMZ recreational season and bag limitwere reduced for the first time (PFMC 2005). In1986, the season was reduced from about nine tofive months. Since then, seasons in the CaliforniaKMZ have generally ranged from one to sixmonths, with several notable exceptions (i.e., the14-, 0-, and 10-day openings in 1992, 2008, and2009, respectively), in contrast to other parts ofthe state, where the recreational season generallyextends for six to nine months (PFMC 2009). Whilethe KMZ recreational fishery is much reduced fromthe peak 1970s and 1980s, it remains an activefishery that attracts both resident and nonresidentanglers – at least in those years when recreationalopportunity is available.The recreational rockfish fishery has beenincreasingly constrained since the late 1990sto address concerns regarding overfishedgroundfish stocks. Beginning in 1998, sublimitswere added to the overall groundfishbag limit to protect species of concern. For themanagement area north of Cape Mendocino(including Crescent City), the species ofconcern were lingcod, canary and (by theearly 2000s) yelloweye rockfish. California’slongstanding groundfish bag limit of 15 fishwas reduced to 10 fish in 2000. By 2009,regulations included a 2-fish sub-limit eachfor greenling, bocaccio, and cabezon, andprohibited retention of cowcod, canary,yelloweye and bronze-spotted rockfishes. TheState began implementing inseason closuresin this area in 2000, and added depth-basedrestrictions as inseason measures in 2004.By 2005, preseason specifications includedclosures or depth-based restrictions for everymonth of the year. In 2008, the once yearroundseason was compressed to four months.In 2008, CDFG considered Yelloweye RCAs inaddition to existing depth-based closures, butultimately did not implement them. Instead, thenearshore recreational groundfish fishery wasclosed four months early.Crescent City Fishing Community Profile 9