By GARRET JAROS / Lincoln Chronicle
Oregon’s 2024-2025 Dungeness crab season was the most lucrative in history despite a delayed start and a significant drop in the overall catch.
The Dungeness ocean-fishing commercial fleet received an ex-vessel value – the dollar amount paid to fisherman for their catch – of approximately $97.1 million.
“And that is a record high without adjusting for inflation,” said Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s state fishery manager Troy Buell.
The previous record without adjusting for inflation was $91.5 million during the 2021-2022 season. The 2023-2024 came in a close second at about $1 million less.
Approximately 15.7 million pounds were landed at Oregon ports during the 2024-2025 season. That’s “A mediocre year,” Buell said, when compared with the 10-year average of 18 million pounds. It was also a drop from 24.7 million pounds in 2024-25.
The Dungeness crab fishery is Oregon’s most valuable and the record-breaking payout to fishermen for 2024-25 can be directly attributed to higher prices paid from the start of the season, which climbed well above $7 before leveling out to a season average of $6.19 a pound. The previous season average was $3.79 per pound.
Most of Oregon’s season started last Dec. 16, two weeks later than the possible earliest start date of Dec. 1, primarily to allow for crab to reach meat-weight requirements along all of the Oregon coast.
Garret Jaros – Lincoln Chronicle
Work and storage areas at the Port of Newport are filled with crab pots being prepared for the 2025-26 season. Oregon’s 2024-2025 commercial Dungeness crab season was one for the books – setting a record for revenue delivered to fishermen.
On the dock
Crew members of the fishing vessel Richard H, were dockside in Newport last week busily preparing pots, lines and buoys for the upcoming season.
“I’d say last season was average,” said Pat Kemmish. “We had less pounds than normal but financially it came out about the same by the end of the season.”
Kemmich, 36, who has been fishing for 18 years, said while some boats just hit the beginning of the crab season and then move on to other fisheries, the Richard H chases Dungeness the entire eight-month season which closes every Aug. 15.
The 2024-25 season did drop off “quickly” in the amount of crab landed, said Kemmish, something he hopes will not repeat this season.
“I’m in a commercial bay crab fishery that I’m doing now, I did it all morning,” he said. “The price has been really good and the numbers have been so-so, better than last year which was a really bad season. It’s been picking up pretty good lately so that gives me high hopes for the ocean season. And the crab have been in really good condition, really hard, really big, nice full crab.
“So that’s a good sign of us hopefully opening on time,” he continued. “As long as we don’t have that whole domoic acid problem.”
Kemmish said that he and his dad, who owns the F/V Richard H, used to do a lot of salmon fishing and some tuna fishing, but have now mostly switched to just crab.
“It’s been sustainable and we get to be home a whole lot more,” he said. “And I got young kids and stuff so it’s kind of nice being home and not gone so much. Still making a pretty good living too.”
Ports and pounds
Newport remained at the top for the Oregon port with the most crab landed in 2024-25. The breakdown per port in pounds are:
- Astoria: 4.4 million;
- Nehalem/Garibaldi/Pacific City: 909,000;
- Depoe Bay/Newport: 5.4 million;
- Florence/Winchester Bay: 754,000;
- Charleston: 2.5 million;
- Bandon/Port Orford: 671,000; and
- Gold Beach/Brookings: 1.1 million
Looking forward
The ODFW was expected to begin begin pre-season testing Saturday for meat-fill criteria and domoic acid, Buell said.
“We haven’t actually dropped any pots for testing yet,” he said last week, but could start as soon as the last storm leaves the Oregon coast.
Some early testing in California revealed “some pretty serious domoic acid problems, above the threshold levels in the viscera and the meat,” Buell said. “It’s a little unusual. Not necessarily in the meat, but in the viscera it was pretty high.”
Washington did an early meat test out of Westport and are projecting they will potentially be ready to open by the beginning of its season, he added, which is typically on the heels of Oregon’s season.
“The meat-fill is looking relatively good there,” he said. “Westport came in at 20.9 percent. But they didn’t test Long Beach, which is kind of the more critical one for us, being close to the border.”
The meat percentage requirement in Washington is 23 percent. In Oregon it is 23 percent north of Cascade Head and 24 percent south of that to the California border.
“They are thinking they might meet the criteria on the next test, but they thought the crab are looking pretty good for this early in the season,” Buell said. “And that’s really the only info we have so far.”
- Garret Jaros covers the communities of Yachats, Waldport, south Lincoln County and natural resources issues and can be reached at GJaros@YachatsNews.com
