Six weeks late, north-of-Falcon crab season to open Jan. 15ILWACO -The commercial Dungeness crab season north of Cape Falcon will open Jan. 15, the fisheries managers announced last week.

The crab season along most of the Pacific coast opened as scheduled on Dec. 1, but the area north of Cape Falcon, about 30 miles south of the Columbia River, remained closed because of low meat quality.

Last month, officials adopted a temporary rule to split the opening date for the 2004-05 ocean commercial Dungeness crab fishery. Quality testing indicated that the area off the mouth of the Columbia River had crab that was not projected to meet the minimum meat fill-out rate.

Fishery managers initially projected an opening north of Cape Falcon on Dec. 15 and then by Dec. 29, but the crab did not meet minimum fill out. Following recent testing in the area around the Columbia River, however, crab fishery managers now project that the crab north of Cape Falcon will be ready for harvest by Jan. 15.

The split opening dates allowed much of the coast to open as scheduled while giving time for crab in the north to fill out to the required pick-out rate. The pick-out rate is the percentage, by weight, of the crab’s meat to the total weight of the crab. It takes about two to three months for an adult male crab to fill out its new shell following molt in the late summer. During this period the leg and body meat is watery and of poor quality.

An agreement between California, Oregon and Washington includes procedures for pre-season meat pick-out testing of Dungeness crab. If minimum crab pick-out rates are not met (23 percent north and 25 percent south of Cascade Head in Oregon), a procedure delays the season on all or part of the West Coast.

A test done Dec. 18-19 put the average pick-out percentage for crab north of Cape Falcon at 21.2 – too low to meet the minimum rate for opening the area before Jan. 15. To provide a more orderly fishery during a split opening, commercial crab-vessel operators must declare their intention to fish north or south of Cape Falcon. Those vessels fishing south of Cape Falcon must wait 30 days following the opening north of Cape Falcon to fish that area.

The rules do allow a “pre-soak” where fishers may deploy their gear 64-hours before the season officially opens. That would allow those vessels which fish north of Cape Falcon to deploy their gear starting 8 a.m., Jan 12. Vessels intending to fish north of Cape Falcon must also receive a hold inspection certificate from the Oregon State Police before fishing the area.