Tag Archives: Crab Fishing
Tension grows among Bay Area crab fishermen to find whale-safe alternative crabbing methods
State regulators say the prevalence of marine life including humpback whales is too high for crab fishing to begin. Now there’s a growing tension among crab fishermen about alternative methods of whale-safe fishing to offset the losses of increasingly shortened seasons. Dick Ogg is a crab fisherman who also spends countless hours driving up and down the coast, advocating for others in the business without getting paid. Fishing is in the 72-year-old’s veins. Between calls with regulators and industry decision makers, Ogg prepares his own crab pots, employing just two deckhands who work in the side-yard of his home to save costs. But the Bodega Bay resident is concerned about a years-long push to promote high-tech “pop-up” fishing gear as the solution for whale-safe harvesting in the spring after the season ends. Video, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 09:26
The Iconic Dungeness Crab
In November 2014, I began to research a California cultural ritual, the famous Dungeness Crab. Icon of Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, paired with the Wharf’s incredible sour dough, tourist and native alike used to flock there for a very special treat. When I was a kid, we dressed up to go to the city, to visit both my grandfather and the Wharf. It was part of being a Northern Californian. No more. Fisherman’s Wharf, Monterey, Bodega Bay and the Marine Lab, Moss Landing: I drove all over doing my favorite thing, talking to people and learning about California’s delicate balances. The first fisherman. Captain Frank Terlouw prepares the Barbara J, a classic wooden fishing trawler, for a 4 a.m. departure to check and unload his 260 crab pots, no matter the weather. He and one crewmember will head north toward Anchor Bay and return 38 hours later with Dungeness crabs destined for holiday meals, a Northern California tradition. Video, Photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 15:25
Growing Interest in Fishing for Crab
In The Netherlands there is a cautious but growing interest for crab fishing. Since January 2023 there are five vessels commercially fishing on North Sea crab (Cancer pagurus), all operating from northern ports such as Den Oever and Lauwersoog. In 2010 there was just one vessel fishing on North Sea crab. A year later another, Orion UK-163, made a start but finished within one year. In general, enthusiasm was quite low, but the last couple of years, as vessel owners seek to broaden operating patterns and to avoid restrictive measures, a few small-scale fishermen are showing interest. This is also because a number of Irish and English crabbers have been operating the German Bight above the Dutch Wadden islands for some years. Photos, more, >>click to read<< 13:51
Why would a pediatric neurosurgeon go crab fishing in the Bering Sea?
The fears and anxieties associated with my role as a pediatric neurosurgeon are those related to my patients’ lives I have put at risk during the past 20 years. The last decade presented an opportunity for me to learn something from the commercial fishing industry about life circumstances where we experience fear and anxiety. In 2009, I was privileged to work on the F/V Miss Colleen, a commercial salmon fishing gillnet boat in Bristol Bay, Alaska. Then, in the fall of 2019 and winter of 2021, I was fortunate to be a deckhand on the F/V Saga, a commercial crab fishing boat in the Bering Sea profiled on the Discovery show Deadliest Catch. Both experiences had a profound effect on me and taught me how to switch from a “my life is at risk” mentality to one focused on preventing mistakes from happening through teamwork and effective communication. It occurred to me that there is no room for error in both the health care and commercial fishing industries. Both giving a patient the wrong medication or going overboard in rough seas can lead to death. >click to read< 18:08
Crab fishing remains lucrative, critical industry for Gig Harbor fishermen
Off the coast of Washington, several Gig Harbor residents are hard at work on crab fishing boats, handling all that comes with the job. A handful of Gig Harbor residents hold commercial crab fishing licenses. Several others are crab license lease holders. The state capped the number of available commercial crab fishing licenses at 220 in the 1990s. The intent was to manage crab populations, and also limit the amount of gear in the water to protect other sea life, such as whales, said Dan Ayers, coastal shellfish manager with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Commercial crab fishing was an estimated $86 billion industry in Washington state in 2022. That total includes boat sales, gear, and processing facilities that handle the harvests. >click to read< 09:24
Fishermen ready for start of crab season amid price, start date uncertainty
“I’ve been crab fishing since I graduated from high school in 2007,” said Robert Mirante. “This is my fifth season running a boat as an owner-operator.” Robert comes from a family of fishermen; his father fished for decades, and he and all his brothers run their own boats. “That’s what we do for a living,” Robert said. Uncertainty about the start date of this year’s season, pushed back later by low crab numbers just this past Thursday, affects the entire community, said Perry Graham, captain of the Amberlynn. “It’s always stressful — it is — not knowing. It’d be nice to have your set days to know when to work,” Graham said. “You’re rushing, rushing, rushing to get ready and then you might sit there for a month or two.” Photos, >click to read< 19:00
Biggest Crab Boat in the World: Facts You Might Not Know
Crab fishing is a dangerous industry popularized by the hit TV reality show The Deadliest Catch. You might be wondering which boat is the biggest crab boat in the world. For your information, the Fierce Allegiance is the biggest boat featured on the show at 166 feet long and is among the largest known crab boats. We’ll take a look at crab fishing and boats to dive into this industry. Crab fishing is a complicated type of fishing because of the dangers associated with it. Setting out to the frigid waters of the Bering Sea months at a time and having to haul hundreds of tons of crabs as you work toward your catch quota, this sort of life in Alaska waters is no joke. The many health risks associated with the job have also been featured on the show many times. Photos, >click to read< 21:45
The Deadliest Catch has been a huge success story for Captain Sig Hansen
American captain Sig Hansen is the leading figure behind the fishing vessel named F/V Northwestern. Sig Hansen’s net worth is estimated to be $4 million. Sig came under huge prominence after starring in each season of the popular documentary television series Deadliest Catch. Later Hansen served as technical advisor for the production team. Sig Hansen has been a constant in the show while entertaining fans with their daily life adventures on the sea. While he later stunned fans by announcing that he is not going to be a part of the television show anymore, he later did return for season 8 of Deadliest Catch.,, >click to read< 09:33
What do Deckhands earn and get paid on ‘Deadliest Catch’ and in the commercial crab industry?
There’s definitely money to be made in crab fishing, more if you star in a popular show about crab fishing. And the crab fishing industry is lucrative. While this is just a snapshot, it’s a pretty eye-opening one. According to a 2006 report, 505 commercial fishermen brought in over $127 million worth in crab loot. If that was evenly divided, it’d be $250,000 per person, but of course, things don’t work out that way. “Wages are often based on a share or percentage of harvest earnings. Newcomer deckhand earnings range from 1.5% to 10% of the adjusted gross catch, depending on location and type of fishery and the skills the worker possesses.” And it’s also situational: some crab fishers can make $50 to $100 a day as a flat rate if they want to play it safe. >click to read< 15:45
The Things That Didn’t Make It To The Screen On Deadliest Catch – Other Fishermen Have Suffered As A Result Of The Show’s Success
Much of what fans see on screen is true to life, with a bit of Hollywood’s embellishment for dramatic effect, of course. But while fans witness everything the crew does, much of what’s captured on camera, hundreds and hundreds of hours of footage, doesn’t even make it past the cutting room floor. Furthermore, while fans see how the fishing season affects the crew, they don’t see how it affects the town or other local fishermen. While Discovery has been praised for the award-winning show, there’s plenty that goes on behind the scenes that have never made it to the screen. Deadliest Catch speaks to the lives and risks the Bering Sea crews take every year, and while truly crazy things are captured on camera, not everything is revealed to the world. >click to read< 09:15
New Brunswick fishermen alarmed at 2nd closure over whale sighting
Fishermen are alarmed over the closure of another fishing area in order to protect North Atlantic right whales, a move some say will have a drastic effect on the industry. Fisheries and Oceans Canada announced Sunday that a second area off the coast of northern New Brunswick was being closed to fishing for at least two weeks. “We’re behind on our annual catches right now,” said Steven Hughes, a deckhand on a snow crab fishing boat based out of Shippagan. “This brought back the stress on the fishing industry.” >click to read< 15:15
Canadian F/V White Diamond heading to the Grand Banks for three months of Crab Fishing
Captain David McIsaac, from Richmond, is taking the 65-foot White Diamond crab boat to the tail of the Grand Banks with five crewmembers and a monitor from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. “The P.E.I. quota was small, so it was either go big or retire, so I decided to go big,” he explained. It was hard to make a living on a 20,000-pound quota. The quota for the Grand Banks is 750,000 pounds. Read the rest here 13:17
