The boys and I were working out on the seawall area today and saw a first. A seagull somehow, while trying to eat a crab in the shallow water near the beach, ended up with the crab stuck to its chest. Two hours later, there was the seagull, still with crab attached. The bird almost looked embarrassed. When the crab finally fell off the seagull didn't even try to eat to eat it. He looked happy and flew away. Probably the mocking he received from the seawall crew may have hastened his departure. I've seen the gulls eat a lot of little crabs. I have never seen one wear one until today.

     The crabbing has been slow. Beach snare throwers are getting a few (well, at least a few of them are getting a few) and bay boaters are getting a few more, but by and large the crabbing is not good. A few guys are getting them down at Ten Mile and a few less are doing okay in the outer bay. As the season progresses the places without crab are growing and the good spots are shrinking. Things don't look too good for the commercial guys, who won't have buyers until the new year, it seems. At this point in a disappointing season they have to hope that they get to go fishing soon. 

    I hope everybody had a good Christmas (or whatever winter solstice celebrating holiday you may recognize) and I wish us all a much better and happier 2021. May it be no worse. 

     Similar story on crabbing; slow in the bay, a little better outside. Shore snarers had a few keepers yesterday but not any full buckets. The commercial guys won't be dropping gear until after Christmas due to no buyers until then. Conditions seem good for surfperch but I haven't heard any reports. Herring reports from SF bay are that they haven't started spawning yet, so they likely haven't started here, either. More waiting, I guess. But, while we're waiting, wrybread has another picture show for us: 

    It looks like the herring are moving in to spawn. This school entered the bay a couple days back but is probably a week or better away from spawning. Herring are notoriously lockjawed pre-spawn, but once they start letting loose they're very catchable. There way be some critters that eat herring following them. 

 

 

    Rushing in for a couple days and then rushing back out before we did the shutdown boogie was, of course, Eddie Kim and family: "Ended up getting 42 Dungeness and 23 rockcod. Can't complain :)" There would be no sympathy if you did. The weather was good enough to head out of the bay for only part of one day, so these are some very good numbers. Inside the bay, Mr. Kim worked gear between Tom's Point and Sand Point. When I say that, I'm not being coy; he moved around the whole time and covered all of the channels (except the one behind Clam Island), some of them twice. Nobody else that I spoke with has done nearly as well, and the big tides the last few days have been bad for catching crab but good for selling gear. Those ripping outgoing tides are great for dragging light gear out of the bay and burying heavy gear under sand dunes. Clam tides and crab tides are different.

     The commercial crabbers get to drop their gear in another week or so. Northern waters get to drop pots on December 20 at 8:01 AM and the rest of the state gets to splash gear at 6:01 AM on the 22nd. The meager crabbing will not improve following the splashing. Commercial effort is likely to be high for the first week or so and then fade away, sort of like the crabbing (To be fair the crab, as a friend of mine once said, "started off slow and kind of tapered off from there."). More knowledgeable people tell me that Dungeness tend to run in a boom and bust cycle on about a six year cycle (about the time it takes to be commercial legal). It appears that we are approaching the bottom of the cycle (next year looks bad. Not many reported "clickers"). It is not surprising to note that if a certain year class has more adults then they will generate more babies. Why favor one year? It could be an ocean cycle of currents or temperatures, but my favorite theory is that it celebrates the anniversary of large, industrial-scale fishing of hake (Pacific whiting) which eat a lot of larval crab. It used to be that you could hardly escape the hake when salmon fishing, but now some people have never seen them before (lucky bastards). It is theoretically possible that suddenly removing a sizable portion of a predatory group will result in a similar increase in the number of the predated-upon species. So, next time you go through the drive-thru at McDonalds you should order the Filet-O-Fish; the crab you save could be your own.

    

    While the crabbing and fishing have not been that good for most, there's reason for hope. Richard Baratta had a very good day on Saturday: "Hey Willy

Just wanted to let you know we crossed the bar safely today,   but You  won’t see it on YouTube. Headed south with two friends,  all creatures have moved, used that new app you told me about on the I phone and finally found them. We felt very lucky since the radio traffic was discouraging. Thanks again for all your valuable advice and Reports ( treasure maps )" Nice piles of dead critters, Richard. Two things: One, Richard dropped his  crab gear in a spot and checked it after two hours. No crab. He moved deeper and found them. Lesson for us all: Don't leave your pots where there aren't any crab. Run and gun until you locate them. Two, the secret app is Google Earth or Google Maps with the satellite layer on. Before the state created the MPAs they performed a huge coastal survey of the ocean bottom so that they'd know the best places to close habitat value of the areas in question. Your dollars paid for it so you might as well use it. Other than Richard, most people had a hard time getting as many Dungeness as they wanted (who has?) but most crabbers got a few and it seemed like everybody was having a good time in some great weather for December (or actually, great weather for any time of year around this windy place). We're going to try to stay open for day visitors as long as the weather holds and enough people come out to make it worth it. Bring your own food and beer as we will be unable to sell food, drink or alcohol after noon Tuesday. But we can sell bait! Don't eat the squid.

   For those of you that are unable to get out boating on the ocean in the near future, here's a couple good reasons to not miss it as much:

https://gcaptain.com/one-apus-returning-to-japan-after-losing-record-number-of-containers/#:~:text=The%20ONE%20Apus%20is%20a,and%20crew%20safely%20to%20port.

https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2020/dec/2/cargo-vessel-loses-six-large-shipping-containers-o/

   The first story is about 1816 lost shipping containers in the middle of the Pacific. Those probably won't come near here. Probably. The second story is of six containers lost off of Eureka. Those are almost surely headed this way. I'm pretty sure hitting one would be bad. Robert Redford said so. Something to think about while running in the dark, though.

   Also, if you haven't read the book "The Devil's Teeth", you should. It's got great white sharks, shark researchers, the Farallones and their history, a bit of a love story, everything you need. The shark taggers and researchers need a bit of a financial bump, it seems. If you're fan of shark week or just interested in white sharks in general, these guys could use a little financial help:

 

    So here's video of a good way to cross the Tomales Bay bar if you are tired of living. The fact that it worked for these guys is no way an endorsement. Luck is something that's difficult to copy. The proper way? When it is breaking, don't go. A hard landing can kill the engine. Then what do you do? Swim, if you're lucky. Have you seen the crab pots on the bar? Get one of those in the wheel while you're trying to cross. I find it unlikely that these guys didn't break bones or the boat. Thanks Wrybread for posting this.

   The Dungeness crabbing in the bay is slow. I guess it's just as well that we're shutting down for a few weeks for a Covid-19 holiday. As of Tuesday noon we are closed for camping until at least January 4th. Day use will continue until the weather changes but we are unable to sell beer, food or drink. While the crab might be happy for the break, my opinion may differ, but at least this is the slow season. If you're gonna hurt me I'd rather you do it when it doesn't hurt much, so thanks. Now I gotta go hoard some toilet paper.

   Gage's two evenings of bat ray fishing from the mud flats south of the sea wall resulted in the total catch of one short Dungeness, one keeper Dungeness, and this thornback. I'm not going to say who caught the only fish, but it wasn't Gage. The few critters that bit were tasting squid before they felt the bite of the hook. Gage also gave a try yesterday for rockfish out in front of Bird but would rather not talk about that either. It's a bit slow.

   Today's report, "Hi Willy,

Crabbing wasn’t so hot for us today but we were surprised by this Mola, beautiful weather and a huge Bull Elk that came close to the water. Gotta love Tomales Bay!!!
Take care,

The Forchini’s" That is an odd place to meet a mola. I passed you today in my Whaler on my lap around the clam islands (testing the boat) and saw your boat on the beach. In my short run I was surprised by the lack of crab pots north of Marker 5 (Not that there wasn't any, there were. Just not insanity levels of them) and the crazy number of buoys floating right in front of the Landing. Is all the gear there because the crabbing is better or because it's close? I would bet the distance thing except that I have heard that a few guys have been catching there, not many crab, but dinner. 

     As far as for next and future seasons of crabbing, it appears that the season opener will be dependent on whale and leatherback turtle numbers in the area. Those numbers need to be close to zero. So, your fun and the commercial guys' house payments are dependent upon endangered species remaining endangered. I love the whales, and seeing a sea turtle around here is like seeing a dinosaur in real life. I'm a huge fan of both. I just wish that a better way to protect them could be worked out. Pitting people's vocations or even their avocations against three species trying to recover from the brink of extinction seems like there may be problems. A single leatherback turtle with a rope on it will shut down the season. Do you think there's maybe an incentive to make sure none are found? Just saying. I read Freakonomics and now I try to consider what the real incentives are behind the rules, intended or unintended. It's those unintended incentives that can really bite you in the tookus.