John Corbin, like most Oregon crabbers, had seen his livelihood put on hold after a toxic algae bloom shut down the West Coast's entire shellfish industry. After months of waiting, the state department of agriculture gave the green light for Dungeness season on Jan. 1.
Then, bad weather hit.
Corbin, the current head of the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commision, finally got his two boats out of Astoria to lay pots on the Pacific Ocean floor. The crabber, with nearly four decades of experience, says his first pulls showed promise — 10 to 15 crabs here, 30 to 40 there — an improvement over last year. That was a good thing, especially after delays pushed the crab season's start past the holidays, leaving Christmas tables without any prized Oregon Dungeness crab.
For West Coast Dungeness fishers, 2015 was a wipeout, with toxic waters causing an unprecedented delay. But for consumers, those same setbacks might prove a windfall, as a strange collision of global trade and too-warm waters have made Oregon "Dungies" meatier and cheaper.
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