Commercial crab season (and crab gear season) in full swing

Click on the words above “Commercial crab season (and crab gear season) in full swing” to see this entire post

For several weeks in October and November I walked 10 Mile beach and Drakes Beach often to pick up all the crab gear I could find.

I wanted to clear the beaches of gear from past seasons so that I could be sure that once this season started, I’d be fairly certain that any gear washing ashore was from this season.

Crab should cost twice what it does, with half of it going to pay those that clean up after the commercial (and sport) fishing fleets.

Such stewardship. Sigh.

Everything you see below was collected from Point Reyes Beaches from 16 December, 2019 – 3 January, 2020.

More here, and here.

Click an image to see a larger version

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Whales off Point Reyes send message to delay crab season

Click the words above “Whales off Point Reyes telegraph message to delay crab season” to see this entire post.

While recreationally crab and rock fishing off the Point Reyes beach this past Monday the 18th of November I was witness to some amazing whale activity I’d never before seen.

At least three whales (Humpback?) were repeatedly and rapidly slapping the surface of the sea with their tales.

Maybe they could sense that soon, many thousands of heavy traps with ropes and buoys were about to be dropped into the sea where they feed.

Maybe they were letting us recreational crab fishermen know that human activity takes a huge toll on whales and other marine life.

Whether it be from the millions of pounds of plastic humans dump into the sea each year, or, the deep cuts into their flesh when they and their relatives get tangled up in the ropes used to tether traps to buoys.

I tend to think they were sending a message to us. Are we listening?

Thankfully the CDFW and commercial crabbers got the message and pushed back the day when up to 170,000 traps with thousands of miles of plastic rope and hundreds of thousands of buoys are repeatedly dropped in the sea in search of dungeness crab.

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Click on an image to see a larger version.
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Whales slap the surface of the sea off Point Reyes on 18 November, 2019. ©Richard James – coastodian.org

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Whales slap the surface of the sea off Point Reyes on 18 November, 2019. ©Richard James – coastodian.org

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Whales slap the surface of the sea off Point Reyes on 18 November, 2019. ©Richard James – coastodian.org

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Whales slap the surface of the sea off Point Reyes on 18 November, 2019. ©Richard James – coastodian.org

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Whales slap the surface of the sea off Point Reyes on 18 November, 2019. ©Richard James – coastodian.org

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Whales slap the surface of the sea off Point Reyes on 18 November, 2019. ©Richard James – coastodian.org

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Whales slap the surface of the sea off Point Reyes on 18 November, 2019. ©Richard James – coastodian.org

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Whales slap the surface of the sea off Point Reyes on 18 November, 2019. ©Richard James – coastodian.org

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Whales slap the surface of the sea off Point Reyes on 18 November, 2019. ©Richard James – coastodian.org

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Crab season is approaching – would you hire a contractor that leaves a mess in your home?

Click the words above “Crab season is approaching – would you hire a contractor that leaves a mess in your home?” to see this entire post.

Commercial crab season is fast approaching. Without any issues causing a delay (domoic acid or other problems) it will open mid-November.

When you hire a contractor to work on your home, one of the criteria in making that hiring decision is how they leave your home once the work is done.

You talk to other customers, ask questions about quality of work, attention to detail, staying on budget and on schedule, right?

You also take into consideration how well they clean up after themselves each day, as well as at the end of the project, right?

If a contractor regularly left their worksite (your home) a mess, scrap wire, lumber, sheet rock laying about, food and drink containers scattered all over your yard and in the street, you’d likely talk to them about it, right?

If they did not correct the situation, you might even fire them and find another crew to finish the work.

You’d certainly be sure to tell anyone that asked about the mess this crew made and to be wary about hiring them.

OK then.

Crab fishing is hard work, no question about that.

But that is no excuse for leaving the ocean and coastline a complete mess each season.

Why do we expect contractors, gardeners, doctors and mechanics to clean up after they do a job, yet, we give a pass to the commercial (and sport) crab fishery each and every year? Even though they dump tons of plastic into the ocean, some of which is ground into fine plastic powder every year.

Recently I walked the southern portion of South Beach at Point Reyes Seashore. The first time I’d been to that area in many months.

I found the usual water bottles, food wrappers, lighters, shotgun shell shot-cups, forks, straws and lots and lots of crab fishing buoys, rope and only one Scotty’s bait jar. Six months since the last season closed and still crab fishing garbage is washing ashore, just like it does each and every day here at Point Reyes.

Crab fishermen, you either need to clean up after yourselves, or pay someone else to do it.

Along the California coast you lose thousands of buoys and traps each year, miles of rope, thousands of bait jars and other items.

This stuff is ground into powder by the waves and rocks and then it enters the food chain of which humans are a part.

Please clean up after yourselves. I’ve asked the Bodega fishermen to clean up the mess they and others leave at Point Reyes.

Their reply was NO, we will not help clean up the mess we make.

My efforts to rectify this situation will increase until marked progress is made.

Images below are from a week ago on South Beach. Links to previous posts on this topic are also below.

Dungeness Crab Season is here – How do I know?

Commercial fishermen are extremely conscious of their impact

Dungeness Crab Season is here – How do I know?

Click on the words above “Dungeness Crab Season is here – How do I know?” to see this entire post

You might think I know it is crab season from all the fresh crab for sale in the market.

More poignantly, I know it is crab season because of all the ropes, buoys, broken bits of buoys, bait jars, bleach jugs, crab traps and other trash put in the sea by crab fishermen that washes up on beaches all along the coast in California.

All the trash deposited on our beaches and in the sea as they extract profit from the ocean.

And none of them will help clean it up.

And the California Fish & Game Commission and California Department of Fish & Wildlife does what to correct this behavior?

Nothing

Just like we need a carbon tax (fee)

We need a seafood fee.

Crab should cost twice what it does, with half going towards cleaning up the mess made by the fishermen catching it.

Same for oysters, salmon, all seafood.

Everybody wants cheap everything, yet nobody gives a damn about the health of the planet that provides everything.

Instead of throwing science at the problems we’ve created.

How about we get out of the way and let nature solve it?

From Drakes Beach on 22 November, 2018

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From other walks along the beach

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Human trash collected from Point Reyes beaches during six visits

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Commercial crab fishing – why so much trash in the sea?

Crab fisherman on strike for $3 a pound, should hold out for $6! Seafood tax a healthy idea.

Commercial crab fishing – why so much trash in the sea?

Click the above text “Commercial crab fishing – why so much trash in the sea?” to see this entire post.

For the past decade I’ve picked up many thousands of crab trap buoys off the beaches of the Marin coast. Many times that of broken bits and pieces of the same buoys. Miles (and hundreds of pounds) of plastic rope, untangled from piles of bull kelp, colied and packed miles off the beaches. Hundreds of plastic bait containers and gallon bleach jugs and other bits and pieces of toxic trash lost or dumped by the commercial (and sport) crab fishing fleet that works the waters off the nutrient rich waters north of the Golden Gate.

While all crab fishermen lose gear each year, some more than others. Not all of them are ignorant of the problem all this plastic poses to the very sea they attempt to make a living from. I know one fellow in particular who does his very best to not lose any gear, as well as to educate his fellow fishermen on how to be a steward of the sea.

I’ve asked him if he could get the fishermen to walk the local beaches as I do and help pick up all the garbage their efforts curse the sea and coast with. “I’ve asked the fishermen’s association to do beach cleanups Richard, more than once. And you know what they say to me? No.”

Is this the attitude of a steward?

What if consumers said no to crab?

The Department of Fish & Wildlife appears to oversee more than one group that feels entitled to exploit public waters for profit, and often make a mess in the process. Then expect the public to clean up after them.

Will DFW ever work as hard protecting the environment from their lessees as they do in promoting extractive (destructive) industries?

I urge the fishermen of California (and Oregon) who work the magnificent waters off our shore to re-double their efforts in becoming authentic stewards of the sea as they harvest their bounty.

At the current rate of more than 8 million metric tons of plastic dumped into the ocean globally each year (and growing), by the year 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean (by mass) than fish. We can and MUST do a better job of protecting our planet.

Below are some images showing a tiny fraction of the crab gear I have packed off Marin beaches.

As always, click on the image to see a larger version.
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More crab gear removed from beaches in years gone by

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Click on image for bigger picture – Should the price of crab reflect the cost to the planet?

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Crab fisherman on strike for $3 a pound, should hold out for $6! Seafood tax a healthy idea.

Click on the text above “Crab fisherman on strike for $3 a pound…” to see this entire post.

Another crab season is upon us, like last year it is far from “normal”. But then again, with respect to the global environment, normal is undergoing radical changes.

Last year the season was delayed for months due to toxic levels of domoic acid in crab flesh (along with many other sea creatures).

This year the agency tasked with regulating crab fishing, the California Department of Fish & Wildlife has sequentially opened small regions of the California Coast to fishing as domoic acid levels drop below safe thresholds.

Instead of one price negotiation at the beginning of the season, wholesale buyers have decided to hold new talks for each region that opens up for fishing.

Bodega Bay fisherman are none too happy about this and have gone on strike. Fisherman want $3 a pound, buyers are offering $2.75 a pound.

Crab fishing is a boom and bust proposition, a few good years followed by a few not so good years. Fisherman try to offset these declines with a good salmon season, though “good salmon season” is a bit of a contradiction in terms of late.

Humans have for decades damned rivers, denying these ancient fish the spawning grounds they need, diverted water from rivers to give farmers water so they can grow almonds, cotton, pistachios and other high margin crops in what was originally the California desert. Pesticide and Herbicide use, clear-cut logging and creek-side construction have further degraded the environment to the point of near extinction for many historically huge salmon runs.

Both Salmon runs and crab populations are under attack, by humans!

Instead of asking for $3 a pound, I advocate crab fisherman hold out for $6.

Give fisherman $3 for each pound and put the other $3 into a fund used to undo the damage we humans inflict on the sea with our insatiable appetite for, well, damn near everything.

Think of it like a carbon tax. The new crab tax.

Set aside money for people like myself and the legions of others that walk our beaches picking up the mess of plastic ropes, plastic bait jars, plastic foam floats, crab traps left on our beaches each crab season to be ground in to a plastic soup by wave action. A soup that becomes part of the food chain of the planet See this post from two years ago for images of what crab fishing does to Point Reyes National Seashore each year.

Human trash collected from Point Reyes beaches during six visits

Research on how to collect crabs without endangering whales could be funded with this crab tax.

Humpback Whale entangled in crab fishing gear Photo: E. Lyman/HWS and NOAA

Humpback Whale entangled in crab fishing gear

Thankfully California has for the first time enacted a law that allows crab fisherman to collect abandoned gear after the season closes to reduce these horrible entanglements (and often deaths) caused to whales and other sea-life.

Reports of recent entanglements:

After huge blue whale gets tangled in crab lines, Californians struggle with elaborate rescue mission

Daring rescue of whale off Farallones

Whale entanglements on the West Coast rise again in 2018, is this the new normal?

While we are thinking clearly and proposing that human harvesting activities pay the true cost to the planet, let’s double the price of salmon and oysters, clams and mussels. Set aside money to be used to clean up the messes we have made, and then figure out how to stop making new messes as we feed ourselves.

Four damns are soon to come down on the Klammath River, opening up over 300 miles of historic spawning grounds to a salmon run completely wiped out 80 years ago. Let’s restore the natural river habitat that nature found worked, instead of trying to use science to build fast growing salmon.
Another view of this troubling news here.

In a few months the California Dept. of Fish & Wildlife will be holding a meeting to discuss Best Management Practices (BMP) for oyster growers in California. A long needed set of common sense rules for an industry that has historically been operated in a “wild west” sense, with lax or little oversight. Please watch this space for an announcement on where and when that meeting takes place so you can voice your support for common sense rules in all leases for use of public lands/waters to profit by private companies. Send me your email address if you’d like to be notified.

Let’s make sure that Tomales Bay looks more like this

Great and snowy egrets in flight. Tomales Bay, mouth of Walker Creek.

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Instead of this

abandoned plastic trays

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Respect Bodega Bay – washing boats and growing shellfish at Spud Point Marina

Click the words above “Respect Bodega Bay – growing shellfish at Spud Point Marina???” to see this entire post.

California has between 840 and 3,400 miles of coastline, depending on how you calculate it.

Point Reyes Seashore and Tomales Bay keep me plenty busy with places to remove the trash we humans cover the planet with.

Crab gear makes up a large percentage of what I find on the beaches of Point Reyes. Based on the orange tags attached to the crab pots, it is easy to determine the ports of call for the boats losing the gear I find all over our local beaches.

Bodega Bay, San Francisco and Half Moon Bay are the top three ports in this area.

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Commercial crab trap tags. Recognize anyone you know? I do.

Commercial crab trap tags. Recognize anyone you know? I do.

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The past couple of years I’ve been visiting Spud Point and Porto Bodega Marinas within Bodega Bay, to have a look around and see what I can learn about the businesses that leave such a mess on our beaches.

Last year I witnessed boats being sanded with electric sanders as they sat in the water. No effort whatsoever being made to contain the paint and wood dust dropping into the water. I also saw boats being painted, as they sat in the water.

The very same water where seed oysters are grown for human consumption by the hundreds of thousands. Few people are likely aware that a local business operates two “floating-upwelling systems” or flupsy tanks to raise seed oysters at the docks of Spud Point Marina. These systems pump the soap & oil contaminated marina water up through the oysters to keep them oxygenated. Once they grow large enough to be placed in grow-out bags, these oysters are then relocated to Tomales Bay to grow to market size.

A couple weeks ago, I happened to be at Spud Point enjoying pastries & coffee from Tomales Bakery on the bench overlooking the marina. Nearby, fishermen were washing their boats with soapy water and brushes with huge amounts of bubbles all over the marina. I wondered how often this happens?

The amount of soap being dumped into the bay by one boat in particular was shocking.

soap suds at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay ©Richard James - coastodian.org

soap suds at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay
©Richard James – coastodian.org

Later I contacted the harbor master and asked about this activity in the water, especially given that shellfish for human consumption were being grown in the very same water nearby.

A few days later, I was told by the Sonoma County Parks people:

“I like to recommend our customers use “A boat soap” which is intended to be less harmful to the environment and only then in quantizes [sic] needed. The fishermen always seem to use dish soap while the recreational boater is more likely to use the boat soap to clean their vessel and equipment (In my opinion this has more to do with price.) [Hmmm, I wonder what price to put on the damage being done to the very environment these fishermen depend on?] After double checking with the United State Coast Guard Sector SF and their Pollution Response Team I did confirm again today using dish soap to clean their vessel and fishing equipment is an acceptable practice.

I find this quite disturbing. What do you readers think?

I’ve asked about why there is no hoist at this very busy marina. A hoist to haul boats out of the bay for needed repairs in an environmentally sensitive way.

I was told the following by the Sonoma County Parks people:

“It was removed well over a dozen years ago when the “haul out” contractor closed down their business. Analysis at that time indicated that there was not enough demand to make it a going concern. A haul out dock needs dry land space to work on boats and the property across the street (that had been used in the past) is too expensive to rent. We have been told by the previous contractor that the real problem is a lack of affordable dry land space to work on boats. Even if the land across the street was more affordable it would still require a significant investment (250,000) in the haul out equipment.”

Seems like a viable fishery needs this critical infrastructure to support wise, environmentally conscious boat maintenance.

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Here are some images from that day, showing the suds in the water.

Followed by images of the same marina, Spud Point, showing the fuel/oil coating the surface of the bay.

The same bay thousands of animals call home.

The same bay being used to grow oysters for human consumption.

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As always, click on an image to see a larger version.

Washing down the boat at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay ©Richard James - coastodian.org

Washing down the boat at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay
©Richard James – coastodian.org

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Washing down the boat at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay ©Richard James - coastodian.org

Washing down the boat at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay
©Richard James – coastodian.org

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soap suds at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay ©Richard James - coastodian.org

soap suds at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay
©Richard James – coastodian.org

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Washing down the boat at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay ©Richard James - coastodian.org

Washing down the boat at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay
©Richard James – coastodian.org

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soap suds at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay ©Richard James - coastodian.org

soap suds at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay
©Richard James – coastodian.org

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Washing down the boat at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay ©Richard James - coastodian.org

Washing down the boat at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay
©Richard James – coastodian.org

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soap suds at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay ©Richard James - coastodian.org

soap suds at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay
©Richard James – coastodian.org

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Washing down the deck at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay ©Richard James - coastodian.org

Washing down the deck at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay
©Richard James – coastodian.org

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Washing down the deck at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay ©Richard James - coastodian.org

Washing down the deck at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay
©Richard James – coastodian.org

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soap suds at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay ©Richard James - coastodian.org

soap suds at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay
©Richard James – coastodian.org

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soap suds at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay ©Richard James - coastodian.org

soap suds at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay
©Richard James – coastodian.org

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Here are images of the water surface, showing the colorful sheen left by oil & fuel.

There are lots of things I don’t know about growing oysters.

Maybe soap and fuel are exactly what oysters need to thrive…

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As always, click on an image to see a larger version.

Oily sheen on the water at Spud Point Marina,  Bodega Bay ©Richard James - coastodian.org

Oily sheen on the water at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay
©Richard James – coastodian.org

Oily sheen on the water at Spud Point Marina,  Bodega Bay ©Richard James - coastodian.org

Oily sheen on the water at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay
©Richard James – coastodian.org

Oily sheen on the water at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay ©Richard James - coastodian.org

Oily sheen on the water at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay
©Richard James – coastodian.org

Oily sheen on the water at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay ©Richard James - coastodian.org

Oily sheen on the water at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay
©Richard James – coastodian.org

Oily sheen on the water at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay ©Richard James - coastodian.org

Oily sheen on the water at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay
©Richard James – coastodian.org

Oily sheen on the water at Spud Point Marina,  Bodega Bay ©Richard James - coastodian.org

Oily sheen on the water at Spud Point Marina, Bodega Bay
©Richard James – coastodian.org

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Commercial fishermen are extremely conscious of their impact

Click on the words above “Commercial fishermen are extremely conscious of their impact” to see this entire post.

The other day while visiting Spud Point at Bodega Bay, I noticed the signs you see below affixed to the railing along the harbor. Their poor condition led me to believe they have been there a long, long time.

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Since 2008, I have personally packed off Point Reyes Beaches:

miles of plastic rope

thousands of crab buoys (one very well known bodega fisherman demanded that I give them back to him, no charge, as they belonged to him. Reminding him that he abandoned them on the beach (they were now mine) and that I hauled them out on my back, I declined his offer. This same fisherman also apologized for his meth-addict brother (his words) who nearly ripped my head off when I offered to sell him back his gear for a fraction of what it cost him to build.)

hundreds of crab bait jars

hundreds of empty bleach bottles – It was only this spring that I learned why I find so many bleach bottles on the beach in the winter. Crab fisherman use pure bleach to dunk their buoys while out at sea to kill the marine growth on them. I witnessed a fisherman at Spud Point hauling dozens of gallons to his boat in a wheel barrow. I asked him about it and he told me he usually uses swimming pool bleach, it is stronger.

A friend of mine lives perhaps a 1/4 mile from the harbor at Bodega and frequently is overcome with the strong smell of bleach.

perhaps 7-8 commercial crab pots (they weigh 70-100 lbs., I leave them above the high water mark now)

It appears the same person who wrote the book on sustainable oyster farming in West Marin (where stewards of the land have deep respect for the waters they ply), also wrote the book on how to be a commercial fisherman who is “extremely conscious”.

Meriam-Webster defines conscious thusly: awake and able to understand what is happening around you.

This past year, California adopted rules used by Washington and Oregon with the hope of avoiding the mad dash to race out and catch every single crab as quickly as possible so nobody else can catch it. The jury is still out on whether it has had the intended effect.

Something needs to be done to reduce the huge and devastating effect wrought on the sea by these greedy, often drug addled fishermen. No doubt fishing is a difficult and dangerous job. When the name of the game is get it all now, any means are used to stay awake for days on end. I’ve been told that sitting in the back of the boat, pulling pots, breathing diesel fumes for hours and hours on end is how it is. If you want to stay awake, you take whatever you need: coffee, speed, meth.

Not all fishermen are greedy, nor drug addicts – likely a small fraction. But, with the amount of garbage left in the sea (who knows how many hundreds, thousands of miles of nylon rope lay on the bottom offshore), and on our local beaches (see below), we need more and stronger enforcement of the laws. We also need fishing regulations designed to reduce the “mad dash to catch it all now.” Perhaps of greatest importance, these conscious commercial fishermen need to self-monitor their ranks. And I don’t mean pulling the other guys’ pots, stealing his crabs, cutting the rope and dumping 25, 50 or 100 pots to the bottom just because he put his pots too close to “your” spot. I do mean not dumping bleach and bleach bottles in the sea, when you change out light bulbs, don’t toss the burned out bulb into the sea. Don’t put your gear where it is likely to be cut by tugs. Don’t leave your abandoned gear all over local beaches (or national seashores), come pick up your mess, and tell your fellow fisherman to not make a mess! Salmon fishermen need to stop shooting seals and sea lions.

This winter, as you enjoy your cracked crab, remember the hard work put in by fishermen, as well as the huge impact on this one and only planet we all call home.

Perhaps crab should be $40/pound, along with mandatory drug testing for all fishermen!

After looking over the images below, you’ll surely agree that “Commercial fishermen have played a very active role in causing lasting environmental damage.”


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Human trash collected from Point Reyes beaches during six visits

Human trash collected from Point Reyes beaches during six visits


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Commercial crab trap tags. Recognize anyone you know? I do.

Commercial crab trap tags. Recognize anyone you know? I do.