WDFW: Dungeness Crab Season To Open Wednesday

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced Monday that the commercial Dungeness crab season will open Wednesday January 15th.  The 2025 season will start Klipsan Beach on the Long Beach Peninsula south to Cape Falcon, OR.  This includes the Columbia River and Willapa Bay.  An opening date is still pending for the rest of the state’s Pacific Coast.

Dungeness crabs support Washington’s most valuable commercial fishery.  According to the Washington state Department of Agriculture, the value of the 2023-24 coastal commercial Dungeness crab season was $66.8 million, surpassed only by an $88.2 million record set during the 2021-22 season.

The Washington, Oregon, and California fish and wildlife departments decide season openers each year as part of a tri-state agreement to cooperatively manage the West Coast Dungeness crab fishery. Opening dates are based on test fishing to determine crab condition.

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife fishery managers sample crab from October to January each year in Westport and Long Beach.  Meat recovered from the crab must reach at least 23% of the total body weight before Washington’s season opens.  This threshold indicates a crab has molted, or shed its old shell and developed a hard shell, and that it will be in marketable condition with greater meat quantity and quality by the season opener.

“Meat recovery is closely tied to the crabs’ molting cycle,” said WDFW Coastal Shellfish Manager Matthew George.  “In recent years, crabs along Washington’s coast have been molting later, resulting in delayed season openings.  The crab we sampled in Westport reached 23% meat recovery in mid-December, while the Long Beach crab did not meet that threshold until early January.”

WDFW reminds state crabbers to follow all current regulations, including those related to line marking, buoy registration, and electronic monitoring, and to avoid setting gear in towboat lanes.

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