Here's how newly approved pop-up traps could extend Bay Area crab season after years of experimentation

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — When we last caught up with crab fisherman Brand Little, he was unloading his springtime catch at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf at a time when many other boats were done for the year. That’s after the spring season was closed early to protect migrating whales from becoming entangled in the trap lines.

But Little and a number of other boats were able to stay out longer thanks to permits that allowed them to use special ropeless pop-up traps.

The technology was considered experimental when Little first gave us a demonstration. The traps sit on the ocean floor with no buoy or line for whales to become entangled in. When it’s time to retrieve the traps, fisherman activate the pop-up buoy by remote control and reel in the catch.

“So this is what we’ve been working on the last three years for, you know — testing the gear to open it up to everybody,” Little said.

Finally, after several seasons of testing, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has just approved the gear for general use across the entire fleet.

Geoff Shester, Ph.D., is with the environmental nonprofit, Oceana, which helped with the program.

“We’ve moved past the experiment phase and the testing, and now they can commercially fish with this and then keep all those crabs. So, well, we’ll be seeing this in the marketplace starting this spring,” he said.

Shester also said the testing resulted in a system that allows both the fishing fleets and marine law enforcement to track the locations of the traps and adds that crews have made more than 1,000 deployments and retrieved the traps with 98% reliability.

“The the testing results also showed that not only is the gear reliable, but it’s profitable. Fishermen brought in, I think, $1.4 million just across 12 fishermen just last spring alone. So, they’re able to actually recoup a lot of the cost pretty quickly as far as the cost of this gear,” he said.

Little says other improvements, like the ability to string longer lines of traps on a single pop-up buoy, is also likely to make the systems more affordable. And after multiple closures over the past several years, he’s now optimistic for the seasons ahead.

“So yeah, it’s been it’s been really exciting. It’s been a hard-fought battle. And I’m just excited for the California crab fleet to get something back for the first time in a long time,” Little said.

The environmental impact could be substantial as well, both inside and potentially outside of California. It’s estimated that roughly three-quarters of large whale entanglements in fishing lines turn out to be fatal.

Here’s how newly approved pop-up traps could extend Bay Area crab season after years of experimentation

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