Local crab should be hitting seafood shops and restaurants by the weekend, touching off what fishermen expect to be a strong Dungeness crab season — and just in time for Thanksgiving.
"I've been dropping pots the past few days and started pulling them up, and it's looking good," said fisherman Frank Cardinale, who left the Santa Cruz harbor earlier this week for waters off Pigeon Point, coming back only to unload his catch. "We hope the numbers last."
Monday marked the beginning of the commercial crab season, and between Monterey Bay and Bodega Bay, crabbing boats have begun returning to port reporting a generally healthy catch. The word on the docks comes as good news to both a fishing industry that has struggled with declines in other high-value fish such as salmon and, of course, seafood lovers hungry for fresh crab.
"We're serving cioppino on Friday," said Chris Moreno, chef and co-owner of his family's Lillian's Italian Kitchen on Soquel Avenue. "It's my favorite. We have people siting around for an hour and a half at their table trying to get all the crab out of the shell."
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