Wildlife officers from the U.S. state of Washington caught a group illegally harvesting crabs from the Puget Sound, citing them for multiple violations.
According to a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) social media post, officers spotted a group harvesting crab late in the evening off the pier in the city of Mukilteo, just north of Seattle. The officers followed one of the harvesters as they brought crab back to their vehicle, where an inspection revealed dozens of crabs inside a bag and a cooler.
The catch included 62 Dungeness crab – 57 of which were undersized, three of which were female which cannot be kept, and one of which was soft-shelled, which is also illegal to keep.
Officers also found two undersized red rock crabs and three kelp crabs.
“Out of the four subjects, only one had a shellfish license,” WDFW noted in its post on the incident. “The subjects were cited for multiple violations, and the crab were released back into the water.”
The bust comes shortly after WDFW officials charged a man for illegally harvesting Dungeness crab in the North Sound.
An inspection revealed the individual has caught 27 Dungeness crabs, 22 of which were female and four of which were undersized. The subject did not record any of the crabs on a state-mandated catch card. The crabs were returned to the water after officers documented the illicit haul.
Both incidents occurred in December 2024, when the recreational season was still open but the commercial Dungeness crab season had been delayed by regulators due to low meat yields. Washington finally opened much of its coastal waters to commercial harvesting 15 January 2025, although part of the fishery remains closed.
In addition to the repeated delays to the season's start, Washington crabbers are watching a pair of lawsuits that could have a substantial impact on the state’s fishery.
Earlier in January, a U.S. federal judge denied a motion to dismiss a price-fixing lawsuit alleging that Dungeness crab buyers in the U.S. states of California, Washington, and Oregon engaged in price-fixing, allowing the lawsuit to move forward.
Additionally, some Washington Dungeness crab harvesters have sued state regulators over a new rule requiring electronic monitoring of vessels used for crab harvesting.