July marked the beginning of the recreational crabbing season surrounding the whole of Whidbey and, according to longtime crabbers, this season may the best in a decade.

Cris Sanguino, a Whidbey Islander, has crabbed off Whidbey for the last 12 seasons, he said. This is the best it has been in memory.

“There’s not a day that I’ve gone out this year that I haven’t limited out,” he said.

According to Officer Ralph Downes with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, there are several factors contributing to this — a big one being luck.

“The crab and everything’s cyclical in the real world,” he said. “Good years and bad years. You get wet seasons, dry seasons.”

This year, he said, Dungeness crabs are seeing a “biological high,” the opposite of what the department recorded last year. This difference is likely only about 100,000-200,000 pounds, he said, but it makes a big difference to recreational crabbers.

The survival of the juvenile crab, which are predated on by just about everything including their own, must have increased, he said. This is likely due to abundance of more small organisms they scour the sand to eat.

Anecdotally, the water seems warmer this year, Sanguino said. Warmer water alters organisms’ metabolisms, increases oxygen demand, causes mobile species to move and change their range and leads to alterations in food webs and ecosystem dynamics.

Perhaps the biggest factor in this year’s change is the differences in commercial and tribal seasons, Downes said.

This wasn’t a conscious effort from the department to increase the “luck” of recreational crabbers, but simply a change based on market demand. This year, the market dropped because of the abundance of commercial fisheries in Prince Rupert, BC and southeastern Alaska. The abundance of crabs this year flooded the market, and the price dropped. As a result, Washington tribes decided to pull out.

Commercial fisheries in marine areas 8-1 and 8-2, overlapping with Whidbey recreational crabbers, pulled out shortly thereafter, Downes said.

The department has been studying crab molting cycles since the mid-’90s, Downes said. Once biologists estimate that 80% of crabs have hard shells, the state begins the commercial season. Unless “little quirks in Mother Nature” get in the way, this typically yields a July 1 recreational start.

Last year, a poor abundance caused a longer tribal and commercial season. For Sanguino, this meant a noticeable ravage by commercial vessels just days before the recreational season started. This year, the opposite occurred.

Downes reminds crabbers to properly mark their equipment and weigh all pots together. Officers have been picking up many pots on the closed days. For the season, they will pull thousands of pots on closed days, the majority of which were likely stolen or lost.

Photo by Sam Fletcher Hillary Maddox clears her trap of seaweed in Cornet Bay.

Weston Stewart harvests checks his net for crabs in Cornet Bay. (Photo by Sam Fletcher)

Photo by Sam Fletcher Weston Stewart reveals his catch in Cornet Bay.