Oregon Public Broadcasting

California’s crabbers are hurting this year.  But, as Ethan Lindsey reports, there could be a slight silver lining for Oregon.

Commercial fisherman along the Oregon coast were grounded in port for much of this year, after federal regulators shut down the salmon season.

Now, California fishermen are saying a poor crab season could shut down their boats permanently.

But Oregon fisherman may actually stand to benefit.

Nick Furman is the executive director of the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission.

He says Oregon averages 10 million pounds of crab harvested per year.

Nick Furman: “They have had, and are having, a real poor crab harvest in the San Francisco Bay Area and even up in Northern California, as far up as Crescent City and Eureka. Move up the coast a ways, to the Oregon coast, we’ve had what appears to be at this point, at least an average harvest.”

He says most crab flows into same market – so Oregon crab may make a bigger appearance on San Francisco plates this year.