Local crab is back on the table. After several fishing zones along the coast had been restricted from crabbing in order to protect migrating whales, the California Fish and Wildlife lifted restrictions this week for fishermen. Fisherman, wholesalers and restaurants have all been waiting for regulators to give them the green light. Gasper Catanzarr, with Monterey Fish Co. wholesaler, said, “We didn’t think it was going to open up till the end of the month or the first of January and were like oh God, it’s going to be miserable.”But now that restrictions are lifted for Zone 4, consisting of areas in Santa Cruz and Monterey, fishermen aren’t wasting any time. “Yesterday we had our first little drop-off. The guy just dropped off a few traps and brought in, I don’t know exactly know but it was over a couple hundred pounds and it disappeared in 10 minutes,” Catanzarr said.Which has many people feeling optimistic for business during the holidays and making up for lost business. Catanzarr explained, “This will be like their catch up, they’ll be able to catch up and make a little bit of money and pay their back bills and the bills they got from,” The lifted restrictions are already impacting prices for wholesalers, restaurants and customers. “Thankfully, there is some drop in pricing which we pass along to consumers,” said Abalonetti Bar & Grill restaurant managing partner, Kevin Phillips. Phillips says the lifted restrictions are also a win for restaurant owners as well and are looking forward to buying local crab instead of looking sometimes as far as Alaska or Canada.He said, “We always buy locally. Whenever we can buy locally first, we buy it from there. For a while, it was only British Columbia that was supplying Dungeness crab but at a very high cost.”Some places people can get a crab straight from a local fisherman include Old Fisherman’s Wharf, Wharf number two in Monterey as well as in Santa Cruz and Moss Landing Harbor.
Local crab is back on the table. After several fishing zones along the coast had been restricted from crabbing in order to protect migrating whales, the California Fish and Wildlife lifted restrictions this week for fishermen.
Fisherman, wholesalers and restaurants have all been waiting for regulators to give them the green light.
Gasper Catanzarr, with Monterey Fish Co. wholesaler, said, “We didn’t think it was going to open up till the end of the month or the first of January and were like oh God, it’s going to be miserable.”
But now that restrictions are lifted for Zone 4, consisting of areas in Santa Cruz and Monterey, fishermen aren’t wasting any time.
“Yesterday we had our first little drop-off. The guy just dropped off a few traps and brought in, I don’t know exactly know but it was over a couple hundred pounds and it disappeared in 10 minutes,” Catanzarr said.
Which has many people feeling optimistic for business during the holidays and making up for lost business. Catanzarr explained, “This will be like their catch up, they’ll be able to catch up and make a little bit of money and pay their back bills and the bills they got from,”
The lifted restrictions are already impacting prices for wholesalers, restaurants and customers. “Thankfully, there is some drop in pricing which we pass along to consumers,” said Abalonetti Bar & Grill restaurant managing partner, Kevin Phillips.
Phillips says the lifted restrictions are also a win for restaurant owners as well and are looking forward to buying local crab instead of looking sometimes as far as Alaska or Canada.
He said, “We always buy locally. Whenever we can buy locally first, we buy it from there. For a while, it was only British Columbia that was supplying Dungeness crab but at a very high cost.”
Some places people can get a crab straight from a local fisherman include Old Fisherman’s Wharf, Wharf number two in Monterey as well as in Santa Cruz and Moss Landing Harbor.
