For some, the holidays begin early, when stores march out their Christmas displays. Others mark the start of the season with the planning of Thanksgiving.
And yet for others, it begins with crab.
On Friday, hundreds of fishermen launched boats off the California coast to snag sweet, tender Dungeness crab. They hauled it to shore as early as Saturday night, providing customers in the region with a long-awaited feast.
Saturday was the first day anglers can reel in the crustacean south of Mendocino County.
“Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, crab — it’s perfect,” said Allen Kuehn, owner of the San Francisco Fish Co. at the Embarcadero, who hopes to be selling fresh crab by Monday. “It’s part of the tradition this time of year. San Francisco is blessed to have it.”
The Dungeness — whether boiled, grilled, roasted or fried — will soon be a staple at seafood markets, a centerpiece on menus, and grounds for household celebration in the city and beyond.
This year’s crab season, like the last two, is expected to be good.
The sheer number of commercial boats at San Francisco’s Pier 45 on Friday — perhaps the most seen at the start of a season in a decade — was a good sign amid healthy catches from recreational crabbers who hit the water two weeks ago.
“I’ve looked at some of the crabs, and they look real nice,” said Larry Collins, president of the San Francisco Community Fishing Association.
John Mellor, 51, sounded as optimistic as the name of his 40-foot boat, High Hopes.“I’ve looked at some of the crabs, and they look real nice,” said Larry Collins, president of the San Francisco Community Fishing Association.
The 36-year fisherman out of San Francisco had already made one trip from the city to the Gulf of the Farallones on Friday, about a 2½-hour ride, and dropped 90 crab traps. He intended to make two more trips before the day was done.
“It seems like the area’s crab fishing has been real strong in recent years,” he said. “All indications look good.”
Unlike some fisheries, such as salmon, California’s Dungeness crab has been robust. Fishermen remember a lull in the catch in the 1960s, but the ensuing decades showed improvement — with the normal ups and downs, of course.
The past decade was probably the best, said Christy Juhasz, an environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Game. Fishermen unloaded their biggest catch in state history two seasons ago, she said.
While the crab season extends to June, the majority of crabs will be caught in the first six to eight weeks. The sea floor outside the Golden Gate is currently bustling with crabs, but the pickings will get slimmer.
Marine biologists estimate that 90 percent of the legal crabs — adult males that have reached 6¼ inches across — will be plucked from Central Coast waters over the next eight months.
The wholesale price for fisherman this year is $3 a pound for whole crabs, but retail shoppers can expect to pay two to three times that.
On the streets near Pier 45 this week, where tourists ambled slowly by the trinket shops of Fisherman’s Wharf, crab pots were piled high and fishing crews made last-minute preparations before they could legally drop their traps at 6 a.m. Friday.
“You have to go through all the gear,” said Jake Johnson, 34, who ventured down from Crescent City (Del Norte County) to fish for crab. “You have to get all your groceries, make sure the boat is gassed up, get your bait and gather all your personal belongings.”
Johnson said he’s been fishing since 2001, often in the waters off Northern California. But this year, he said, the docks looked more crowded than he had ever seen them.
“It looks like you might damn well be able to walk across the buoys out there,” he said.
Article and Photos Sourced From: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Tis-the-season-for-California-crab-5893895.php#photo-7151201
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