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The good news? The commercial Dungeness season has finally commenced in the Northern Region of California, nearly a month after opening elsewhere in the state. Following delays due to elevated levels of domoic acid and price negotiations, crabbers in Humboldt Bay, Trinidad Harbor and Crescent City set traps over the weekend and began hauling their catch ashore early Monday. 

The not-so-good news? 

“As anticipated, there seems to be a lack of volume in this last remaining area for commercial crab harvest, which further justifies our strike for a fair price,” Humboldt Fishermen’s Marketing Association President Harrison Ibach told the Outpost in a text this morning. 

The marketing association, which represents local, independent boat captains, agreed to a price of $4.75 per pound on Friday.

“Fishermen are happy to commence this crab season, but as we feared, it may be short-lived,” Ibach said.

At any rate, friend o’ the LoCO and local photographer extraordinaire Matt Filar — a big fan of both the Humboldt Crabs and Humboldt’s crabbers — made his annual early morning visit to the Trinidad Pier to document the first day of the season.

While Filar was on scene, local vessels Shellback, Kai-Aku and Miss Phyllis came ashore with their catch. Matt has graciously allowed us to share some of his photos with our readers.