CRAB SEASON NEARLY OPEN

This weekend marks the beginning of the "crab derby," the most dangerous time of the year for fishermen.

In Moss Landing Harbor on Wednesday afternoon, fishermen were preparing their gear and getting ready for the adrenaline-charged rush to set crab pots before Monday's opening of the commercial crab season. Meanwhile, Coast Guard officials walked the docks, making sure this year won't see a repeat of past tragedies.

Lt. Todd Moe led the five-person Operation Safe Return team, checking vessels for safety equipment and bouncing on boats to test their stability.

"It's the most dangerous fishery that we have in California," said Moe. Boats weighed down with hundreds of 90-pound traps rush to lower as many as possible immediately once the fishery opens. The heavy traps raise the boats' center of gravity and make them vulnerable to tipping in winter storms.

Moe said the Moss Landing boats were generally in good shape this year and he had only minor recommendations.

"This is really just a reminder for us to go out and tell them this is a danger, this is a threat," Moe said about the voluntary boat checks.

Vern Fisher/The Herald

Randy Emmons of Marina, a crew member on the Phantom, prepares crab pots for the commercial crab season that starts Monday.

In 1999, three people died in the California commercial crab fishery. In 2000 there were two deaths. Last year, for the first time, there were no fatalities.

Operation Safe Return was started in 1999 to reduce the loss of lives and fishing vessels in the West Coast crab fleet.

The Central California crab fishery opens each year on Nov. 15. Regulations allow fishermen to put down crab pots at dawn Sunday, the day before the season starts.

"It's like a race -- the gun goes off, boom," described Tom Hart, who has been fishing out of Moss Landing for 17 years. "Everybody is out there at midnight, driving around, waiting for the first minute to put their pots in."

The most popular local crabbing spots are five to 10 miles out of the harbor, on the banks of the Monterey Canyon, Moe said.

Though the season lasts until summer, most of the fishing happens in the first few weeks. Crabs are plentiful and the Thanksgiving-season market prices are high, so every minute counts.

It's "pretty much no sleep," said Randy Emmons of Marina, who has been fishing for 15 years. He'll be setting 300 pots from the 63-foot Phantom; 50 in one spot, 80 in another, spreading them out. In the high-stakes early days, he and his two-man crew will be doing their best to empty the pots every day. A typical day starts at 6 a.m. and continues into the night on the lighted boat, ending at 11 p.m., he said.

"Then you sleep a few hours and you keep going, till you can't take it no more," said Emmons.

Still, he said, Monterey is a "warm-up" compared to Oregon; his boat will be heading up to Crescent City, where the larger northern fishery opens on Dec. 1.

The West Coast Dungeness crab fishery is a success in environmental terms, according to a 2001 California Department of Fish and Game report. It's a simple management plan. Fishermen collect only male crabs with shells bigger than 6.25 inches, and this has kept the population stable within a naturally occurring 10-year cycle.

It's the fishermen that agencies are worried about in this increasingly intense fishery. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill in September that would have limited the number of traps per vessel to 250. The proposal was a trial measure for the Central Coast.

Hart, who will be setting 250 crab traps this weekend, said he himself would not support more restrictions. He said he loves being on the water and he's "stoked" for the sudden start to the crabbing season.

"This is one of the few areas," said Hart, "where you can still be a go-getter."