News Archive

The recreational fishery for Dungeness crab is open in the portion of northern California that was delayed due to a public health hazard. State health agencies determined that consuming the meat of Dungeness crab taken in waters from the California/Oregon border (42° 0.00’ N latitude) to the southern boundary of the Reading Rock State Marine Reserve (41° 17.6’ N latitude) no longer poses a significant threat for domoic acid exposure.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is continuing the temporary recreational crab trap restriction from the Sonoma/Mendocino county line to Lopez Point (Fishing Zones 3 and 4) due to presence of humpback whales and the potential for entanglement from trap gear.

The recreational Dungeness crab season will open statewide beginning Nov. 2, 2024. The use of traps will be temporarily prohibited between the Sonoma/Mendocino County line and Lopez Point, Monterey County (Fishing Zones 3 and 4) when the season opens due to presence of humpback whales and potential for entanglement from trap gear.

The California Fish and Game Commission acted on a variety of issues affecting California’s natural resources at its Oct. 9-10 meeting.

Sept. 7 is California Biodiversity Day, an annual event marking the anniversary of the launch of the California Biodiversity Initiative in 2018. California is one of the most biodiverse regions in the world and is one of 36 global biodiversity hotspots — areas containing exceptional concentrations of plant and animal species found nowhere else on the planet.