Hi Eric; Re: "Well the problem has been getting worse and worse for years here in Washington state. Legal Dungeness crab catches have been dropping on the coast, the San Juan's and here in Puget Sound."
Naturally one looks to researchers at the University of Washington to learn what's going on with the Dungeness crab take in Washington State. And here it is, straight from their website:
Crab Sagas Yield Insight into Sustainable Fisheries
Sandra Hines, University of Washington, January 9, 2012
...
The amount of Dungeness crab that Washington fishermen bring to shore can fluctuate between 5 million and 20 million pounds in a matter of years, apparently in response to natural causes.
...
Armstrong described one human-caused change 140 years ago that unintentionally resulted in a boon for Dungeness crab in Washington state that continues even today. Dungeness crabs are one of the Pacific Northwests most profitable fisheries with coastal estuaries in Washington and Oregon providing essential nursery habitat. In the 1880s, sea captains introduced the non-native soft-shell Mya clam into Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor estuaries. The clams flourished a few years and then died out in the 1890s leaving behind piles of empty clam shells across thousands of acres of tide flats. Those so-called “death assemblages” in turn became clam-shell condos providing additional refuge from predators when Dungeness crab are only about a quarter inch to a half inch in size
...
Funding for the series is provided by Tanya Bevan, friends of Don Bevan, the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences and NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center and Northwest Fisheries Science Center. For more information, contact the series organizer Trevor Branch, assistant professor of aquatic and fishery sciences ...
washington.edu
Maybe other crabs are out competing Dungeness.
Maybe you're not as good a fisherman as you used to be.
Maybe the competition is getting stronger.
Maybe the Native Americans are catching more crab than they used to because of the court order in 1995.
Maybe the environment isn't a total disaster like you're suggesting.
Maybe you're so certain that the environment is going to collapse that you see evidence that isn't evidence.
-- Carl
P.S. For numbers showing that total crab harvests in Washington State are not collapsing, but instead are flat to increasing, see:
wdfw.wa.gov |
