On May 1, commercial crab traps will be banned from the Sonoma Mendocino County border down to Pigeon Point in Pescadero.
The ban, introduced by California Fish and Wildlife, is to protect humpback whales from getting entangled in the traps. Last year, 24 whales were caught in fishing gear off the California Coast, and nearly half were entangled in Dungeness crab traps.
In October, a humpback whale got stuck in lines from crab traps off the coast of Monterey. The Large Whale Entanglement Response Network, a group of scientific organizations that respond to these events, took six months to free the whale.
The California Fish and Game commission has been testing pop-up crabbing gear which is safer for whales, and is working to create regulations that will authorize statewide use sometime next year.
