From the Editor: Oregon Crabbing Restrictions Extended
Bad news for crab fishermen in Oregon was delivered on Aug. 4. On that date, the state’s Fish and Wildlife Commission voted to extend, with no sunset date, restrictive crabbing measures that were originally supposed to expire after the current season.
The rules restrict the number of crab traps in the water and how deep the traps can drop in the late-season months when humpback whales are more likely to swim there.
The restrictions were first put into place due to the fact that humpbacks migrate off Oregon’s coast and they, along with other types of whales, can get caught in the vertical ropes connected to the heavy traps and drag them around for an extended period of time, in the process becoming injured, starved and exhausted, leaving them susceptible to drowning.
The ODFW i...