Two Bay Area fishermen push low-tech redesign of crab pot to protect whales — and revitalize a threatened industry

As whale populations swell along the California coast, Dungeness crab fishermen are struggling to stay afloat.

Fear of entangling whales in a minefield of ropes extending from traps on the ocean floor to buoys floating on the surface has forced state regulators to delay the traditional Nov. 15 start of the commercial crabbing season year after year. This year alone it was delayed several times because of the continuing presence of migrating whales. It will finally open Saturday — limited to half the usual number of crab pots.

In response to the dwindling season, crab fishermen and scientists have been working furiously to come up with solutions to the problem.

One new high-tech design being tested bundles the ropes with crab pots so that the ropes pop up to the surface only when triggered by a timer or a sound alert sent from fishing boats so crews can quickly retrieve the pots.

But two veteran Bay Area fishermen, Brand Little and Steve Melz, have also come up with a potential low-tech solution already available in their boatyards.

Arguing that developing expensive gadgetry is overthinking the solution, they’ve crafted a simple modification of the traditional crab pot that they say could put the nostalgic delicacy back on holiday menus as soon as next year.

“We have to adapt or die,” Little said.

The duo’s redesign is an old-fashioned crab pot with half the top removed, essentially converting it from a trap to a “scoop.” Some crabs would be able to crawl out of the top, which Little and Melz say would incentivize fishermen to stay with their traps rather than leaving them unattended for days — lying in wait for whales headed south for the winter.

The constant harvesting of crab from traps would cut the number of pots and lines in the water per boat from a maximum of 450 to 60, which fishermen would have to continuously monitor and move around when whales are sighted. But once most of the whales leave for the season in late December, Little and Melz say, crews would switch back to their traditional high-yield gear.

In exchange for adjusting the way they fish and accepting lower yields early in the season, fishermen could once again start profiting off the lucrative fall season.

Their idea is quickly gaining the attention of fellow fishermen, regulators and scientists.

“Sounds like a brilliant solution,” said Jarrod Santora, a marine biologist at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center in Santa Cruz.

Some fishermen seem intrigued, but others worry that the concept won’t benefit all fishermen’s business models equally.

“You have to be careful that everyone has the same opportunity,” said fisherman Dick Ogg, the Bodega Bay representative on the Dungeness Crab Task Force, a state advisory panel. Because bigger boats have larger crews and use more fuel, Ogg said, the skimpier catch may not result in enough revenue to make it worth their while.

Dungeness crab has long been one of California’s oldest and most valuable and sustainable catches — “the backbone of our fishery,” Santora said.

But the commercial fishery hasn’t been great for whales. When the largest animals on Earth become entangled in the crabbers’ ropes, they can suffer severe injury, infection and sometimes even die. In 2016, the Dungeness crab fishery was found to be responsible for 22 of the record 48 confirmed whale entanglements off the West Coast, most of them in central California.

In recent years, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has delayed the commercial crab season opening to as late as Jan. 1.

Hence the race to come up with a fix.

One big issue is the cost of the crab pot. An old-fashioned one costs about $200. One outfitted with electronic wizardry can set a fisherman back as much as $2,500.

“Economically, it’s just not feasible at this time,” Santora said.

The pots can also get lost or fail to deploy completely, leaving a tangle of loose ropes in the water column. In addition, fishermen complain that the new gear slows them down.

Melz, 55, a San Jose native who lives in San Carlos, inherited a love for fishing from his late father, who passed his boat down to his son.

He’s on the ocean year-round, fishing the seasons, and said he plans to launch Saturday, despite the weather. Even on his rare day off, he goes bass fishing or volunteers his time to help test the health of Dungeness crab populations.

Little, 49, followed a different path. In 2004, despite his susceptibility to seasickness, he maxed out his credit cards and bought his first boat.

With the help of his wife, Laura, Little began to sell his catch at a market stand they called the Little Fish Company. In 2010, he quit his desk job to become a full-time salmon fisherman.

Today, he lives in Auburn and captains the 53-foot Pale Horse, which is docked in San Francisco. His business, now much bigger than the original stand, sells fresh seafood at farmers’ markets around the state.

Established this year, the special permit program allows short-term exemptions from state fishing laws to test innovations on a small scale before rolling them out to the masses.

Ryan Bartling, a senior environmental scientist with CDFW, said he thinks the Melz-Little proposal is “an interesting conversation to have. We’re certainly going to be looking at it.”

Ultimately, CDFW Director Chuck Bonham will determine the fate of the low-tech concept sometime before the fall 2023 season.

Little and Melz are hopeful that their idea could finally turn the tide for local crab fishermen.

“We didn’t do this because we’re trying to be millionaires,” Melz said. “We do this because this is now in our blood.”