OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Recreational crab fishers in Puget Sound are being awarded a bigger share of the state’s harvest under new rules.
After five years of trying, they’ve been granted a fixed season that begins Friday and runs through Labor Day, with no quotas for total take. The Kitsap Sun reports that could increase the recreational harvest of Dungeness crabs by 40 percent.
Meanwhile, the nontribal commercial fishery for the crabs won’t begin until Oct. 1 and will be limited to whatever’s left of the nontribal quota. Commercial harvesters could see their share of that quota drop from 67 percent to about 50 percent.
