SHARPEN THOSE WITS and elbows.
It’s time to dance with the Dungeness crab, one of the North Olympic Peninsula’s most captivating, if not cuddly, critters.
Recreational crabbing season starts today throughout much of the Peninsula, including Marine Areas 6 (eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca), 9 (Admiralty Inlet) and 12 (Hood Canal).
And there should be plenty of pincers to paw at, according to state shellfish policy coordinator Rich Childers.
“There’s pretty good crab everywhere this year actually,” he said.
That even includes the once-wayward waters of Hood Canal, Childers said, which showed a strong abundance during the state’s preseason test fisheries in late May.
“The northern two-thirds of Hood Canal look really good,” he said.
“Test fishery results show a lot of crab north of Ayock [Point] . . . good abundance and good-sized crab.
“The south end [is] not so good. There’s some crab there, but not that many.
“The abundance is down.”
Hood Canal crab have been under the microscope during the last few years.
The recreational fishery opened four weeks later than the rest of the state last season due to concerns about populations in the area.
Local residents have also complained often of poor crab harvests in recent years.
One reader, fed up with a lack of answers as to the fishery’s decline, even suggested the crab may have been affected by the introduction of mussels to Quilcene Bay.
“Crabs are gone and there is an answer,” the reader wrote last September.
“Meanwhile, advise people seeking crabs to not waste their time looking in Quilcene Bay.”
Maybe that will change this summer.
“What we are seeing is Quilcene Bay has very good crab populations this year,” Childers said.
“We’ve seen those populations rebound quite a bit.”
Hood Canal has the largest recreational quota (150,000 pounds) of any crab fishery on the Peninsula, with the number raised this year in large part because of the positive data from the test fishery.
Area 6 (80,000) and 9 (81,000) each have similar quotas to last year.
Nary a pot, recreational or commercial, has been dropped in Area 6 in more than three months.
In fact, the fishery wasn’t even included in last year’s recreational winter season after crabbers produced high catch rates during the summer.
“[The tribes] are not going to start until [July] 5 or 6, so the recreational anglers are going to have an exclusive fishery for the first week [in Area 6],” Childers said.
“I suspect the opening week out there in the Sequim/Port Angeles area is going to be pretty darn good.”
Dungeness Bay is always a favorite in the eastern Strait.
Of course, one can always drop a pot in Freshwater Bay, Discovery Bay or Port Angeles Harbor as well.
Just be aware the latter is still the subject of a public health advisory issued by the Clallam County Department of Health since 2007.
Port Townsend Bay has no such qualms.
It was also the site of a productive tribal harvest in early June, according to Childers.
“The tribes went in for a 48-hour fishery and then pulled out for the rest of the summer,” he said.
“The catches were very good so that,” should bode well for recreational harvests.
Areas 6, 9 and 12 are open Wednesdays through Thursday until Labor Day weekend when each closes for a catch assessment.
If enough quota remains, there will also be a winter season, which generally begins in November.
Areas 4 (east of the Bonilla-Tatoosh line), 5 (Sekiu) have been open since June 18, with the season running through Jan. 2.
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Matt Schubert is the outdoors and sports columnist for the Peninsula Daily News. His column regularly appears on Thursdays and Fridays. He can be reached at matt.schubert@peninsuladailynews.com.