The 2025 commercial Dungeness crab season in the U.S. state of Washington may start as early as 1 December.
If the season opens that early, it would be six weeks earlier than the 2024 season began to open up and would mark only the second time over the past nine seasons that the state’s Dungeness crab fishery opened in December.
According to the Chinook Observer, state officials have begun conducting preseason tests on meat recovery and domoic acid levels to determine the season’s start date.
The first round of tests delivered mixed results.
Crabs tested in the Long Beach area of the state’s waters came close to meeting the 23 percent meat recovery threshold required along the Washington and North Oregon coasts but fell just short at 20.9 percent recovery on 3 November. However, other major test sites performed well above the threshold, with Astoria at 26.4 percent, Westport at 25 percent, and Garibaldi at 27.1 percent.
Shell hardness remains another hurdle to an early start.
As of early November, according to the Chinook Observer, 64.5 percent of crab tested in Long Beach and 61.5 percent in Westport were still at Shell Grade II, which are too soft to be marketable. Domoic acid levels, though, were barely detectable.
Despite delays over the past few years, the fishery’s value remains strong.
Washington commercial crabbers caught a record 24 million pounds in 2022 and brought in 12.1 million pounds commercially last season and more than 16 million when including Tribal landings. That resulted in an ex-vessel value of USD 83.1 million (EUR 72.2 million), which was the second highest on record, aided along by a record opening price of USD 5.75 (EUR 5.00) per pound.
