Higher Prices Expected as Crab Season Starts Poorly

Disheartened anglers predict that a depleted supply of crabs may drive the price up.

“It’s a sad scene this year,” said Steve Anello, owner of a fishing boat named Tarantino Jr. “It’s going to be a real dismal start.”

Bad weather is making the situation worse, Anello said Friday, the season’s opening day, after returning from a blustery outing where rough seas stopped him from putting out 150 of his 500 crab pots.

Anglers learned Thursday that wholesale fish buyers had agreed to pay $2 a pound for crab, up from the $1.47 a pound paid the year before.

The higher price was predicated in part on the assumption that the crab catch would be down this year. The predictions are based on the number of juvenile crabs seen last year, as well as the molting crabs seen in early spring this year.

But the Annabelle was the only boat to return to Bodega Bay by Friday evening with a significant amount of crab. Longtime fisherman Earl Carpenter and his crew had to pull 20 pots before they found anything--the first 19 were empty.

Bad weather Thursday caused one fishing boat to capsize and sink 16 miles west of the Golden Gate, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. The three crewmen were rescued from the ocean by a helicopter, then treated for hypothermia and released from the hospital.