LONG BEACH — Dungeness crab in Long Beach Peninsula waters have the lowest percentage of meat in at least five years of late-October testing. More than 85% of local crab also are too soft to harvest. This is bad news for the traditional Dec. 1 opening date, which has often proved illusory in the past two decades.
Samples gathered Oct. 23 in the Long Beach test area had a meat-recovery rate of 19.1%. This compares to 20.9% in 2018, 19.9% in 2017, 23% in 2016 and 23.8% in 2015.
Samples from the Westport area collected on Oct. 24 had a recovery rate of 21%, compared to 19.7% in 2018, 20.2% in 2017, 22.9% in 2016 and 24% in 2015.
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