Intrinsic rate of increase is unknown. Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (2002) reports age at maturity as 2 to 3 years. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (1994) reports that Dungeness Crabs may reach sexual maturity at 3 years. Dungeness Crabs generally grow to a maximum of about 9 inches in body width (Bliss 1982). Estimated maximum lifespan is between 8 and 13 years (ADFG 1994).

Dungeness Crabs are named after the Dungeness Spit along the south shore of the Straits of Juan de Fuca in the Pacific Northwest's Puget Sound. But they can be found in shallow, nearshore waters as far north as Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound in Alaska, and as far south as Magdalena Bay, Mexico (ADFG 1994). Fisheries for this species occur off the west coasts of the United States (California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska) and Canada. We consider this to be a small range compared to the more widely distributed King Crab and highly migratory species such as tunas and Swordfish.

Dungeness Crab populations are affected by variations in oceanic conditions. These variations are a key contributor to the large fluctuations in catches that are characteristic of Dungeness Crab fisheries (NMFS 1999). Fluctuations in catches are cyclical and occur in multi-year (4, 7, or 10 years; Barker, pers. comm., 2005) cycles. Currently, catches are on the rise due to favorable oceanic conditions (Seabourne, pers. comm., 2004).

Dungeness Crabs have high fecundity. They mate from spring through fall, and large females have the capacity to carry up to 2.5 million eggs at a time. The fact that males are polygamous, meaning that they mate with more than one female in a season, enhances the viability of the population (ADFG 1994).

Female Dungeness Crabs brood fertilized eggs attached to their abdomen until they hatch. This process generally takes about 2 to 3 months for crabs off the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington (PSMFC 1996). In comparison to other crab species such as King Crabs, which brood their eggs for approximately a year and are vulnerable during this time, Dungeness Crabs are vulnerable for a relatively short period of time.

Estimates of total population sizes are not available for Dungeness Crabs. Abundance, as indicated by total catches, fluctuates greatly from year to year due to changes in oceanic conditions. Consequently, fishery management agencies do not invest resources in conducting population assessments. Population assessments have not been conducted in either Washington (Barker, pers. comm., 2004) or Oregon (Seabourne, pers. comm., 2004).

There are no data on catch trends per unit effort available to use as a proxy measure for abundance of Dungeness Crab populations. Unlike the groundfish trawl fisheries off the U.S. Pacific coast, for example, which are required to have logbooks to collect detailed information on fishing effort, the crab fisheries are not required to keep logbooks. The most recent document to provide information on total catches of Dungeness Crabs in all regions was published by the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission in 1999 (Colpo, pers. comm., 2005).

Current catches are higher than catches in recent years. Combined catches from Dungeness Crab fisheries operating in Washington, Oregon and California were slightly over 64 million pounds during the 2003/2004 season, a 16% increase from the previous season, and over 3 times the amount caught during the 2000/2001 season (IntraFish 2005). However, year-to-year fluctuations in catches due to oceanic conditions make it difficult to draw conclusions from this information about the status of Dungeness Crab populations (Colpo, pers. comm., 2005).

There is currently no evidence that indicates that Dungeness Crab is overfished.

The size distribution of females is functionally normal, and there are not indications that other demographics of the population are skewed (Botsford, pers. comm., 2005).

Dungeness Crabs are generally captured using circular steel traps, or pots, that are typically baited with clams, squid, chopped Herring, or fish heads and carcasses and submerged on the ocean bottom to “soak” (ADFG 1994; DFO 1988). Pots are fished singly in some fisheries. In other fisheries, they are attached at intervals along a groundline. Washington, however, has outlawed the use of groundlines in Dungeness Crab fisheries, and all pots must be individually attached to buoys (Barker, pers. comm., 2/17/2005). All U.S. and Canadian fisheries require that pots contain devices to allow sub-legal size crabs and female crabs to escape. Pots must also have biodegradable webbing to minimize the extent that pots continue to trap animals if they are lost (known as "ghost fishing"; WDFW 2005). Because they sit on the seafloor, we consider pots and traps to have a moderate impact on habitat.

Baited ring nets, composed of circular frames fitted with webbing, are also used by some subsistence and commercial fishermen (WDFW 2005; DFO 1988). SCUBA, dip nets (PSMFC 1996; DFO 1988), and hooked or hookless handlines (ADFG 1994) are used in recreational fisheries.

Dungeness Crabs inhabit nearshore and coastal waters all along the western coast of North America (ADFG 1994). Potential anthropogenic threats to these ecosystems identified by fishery managers in Alaska include an increase in suspended organic or mineral material; alteration of substrate (e.g., sandy bottoms); a reduction in protective cover (e.g., seaweed beds); the obstruction of migration routes; shock waves in the aquatic environment; and changes in the temperature or chemistry of nearshore waters (ADFG 1985).

Specific anthropogenic threats to Dungeness Crab habitat reported by the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (1996) include fungicides and insecticides such as Sevin (carbaryl), which is sometimes used to control populations of ghost shrimps in Pacific oyster beds; urban contaminants such as heavy metals, PCBs, and hydrocarbons; and pesticides and herbicides entering coastal waters in runoff from suburban yards and farmlands. However, no points were deducted here, as there is no evidence suggesting that these factors are currently compromising the viability of Dungeness Crab populations.

The preferred habitats of Dungeness Crabs are sandy bottoms and eelgrass beds in intertidal areas to depths of 90 feet. They can also be found on muddy or gravel bottoms (DFO 1988). Some of these areas are high-energy zones that change daily (Barker, pers. comm., 2005). Dungeness Crab habitats are not known to be adversely affected by crab pots.

In the United States, there are commercial fisheries for Dungeness Crabs in Washington, Oregon, California, and Alaska. In 2003, the majority of landings occurred in Washington (40%), followed by Oregon (28%), California (26%), and Alaska (6%; NMFS 2005a). Very small amounts of Dungeness Crab were imported from Canada in 2002 and 2003 ( NMFS 2005b).

Typically the Pacific Fishery Management Council is responsible for managing fisheries in federal waters off the U.S. west coast. However, Dungeness Crab fisheries are managed differently than other species. The Council has given individual states the authority to manage Dungeness Crab in both state and federal waters. Thus, the following agencies manage Dungeness Crab fisheries: Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, California Department of Fish and Game, and Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Also, in Washington, the coastal and Puget Sound crab fisheries are co-managed with federally recognized Treaty Tribes. Both state and tribal fishery managers develop annual management plans (Barker, pers. comm., 2005).

There are no federal or state Fishery Management Plans for Dungeness Crab fisheries. However, a Tri-State Commission coordinated through the Pacific States Marine Fishery Commission discusses issues related to the Dungeness Crab fisheries in Washington, Oregon, and California and makes management recommendations to the states. Yet, the Commission does not have the authority to require the states to follow its recommendations. Rather, it functions more as a working group (Colpo, pers. comm., 2004).

Although there is no comprehensive management plan for Dungeness Crab fisheries with conservation and sustainability goals, all states have had some regulations in place for decades and have mechanisms in place for controlling fishing. Because recruitment (i.e. the number of juvenile crabs in the population that survive to join the fishable population) is highly variable from year to year, managers focus on maintaining the reproductive potential of crab populations through sex, size, and season restrictions in the fishery. The basic strategy is to catch only male crabs that are big enough to have had a chance to mate prior to capture. This approach is different than some other fisheries, which aim to maintain populations above an established biological threshold level (Colpo, pers. comm., 2002).

In Washington, there is now a limit on the number of pots allowed in the fishery based on fishers' historical catches. This management tool aims to deal with how catches are divided up among fishing groups and to control the pace of the fishery. Within this framework, managers seek to allocate a larger proportion of the catch to Native American tribes on the Puget Sound and along the coast (Barker, pers. comm., 2004).

Oregon and California do not have place limitations on the number of pots allowed in the fishery or other limitations on catch. California, however, is working to develop a pot limitation program (Seabourne, pers. comm., 2004).

Other regulations in all three states include: only males can be caught to protect the female reproductive population; minimum size limit of 6.25-inch carapace width to allow males to mate at least twice; prohibition on keeping soft-shell crabs; and seasonal and area closures to reduce incidental catch of soft-shell crabs. Fishery managers test for shell hardness to determine when to open the fishery. This management approach is an effort to ensure that the majority of crabs caught are not in the process of reproducing. Fishery managers feel that these measures have helped produce good economic yields each year (Barker, pers. comm., 2004).

In addition, Dungeness Crab fisheries utilize some market-based approaches to fishery management. For example, crab processors coordinate with the Tri-State Commission to determine when to open the Dungeness Crab fishing season each year. The season is opened once the meat-picking rate--a measure of how much weight crabs have put on since molting--is high enough. In late 2004, low meat-picking rates led the Tri-State Commission to recommend that the opening of the fishery in Northern Oregon and Washington be delayed to allow the crabs to grow larger. Oregon and Washington complied (Colpo, pers. comm., 2005).

We awarded a score of 2.00 here to account for fishery managers' ability to help maintain a viable fishery. We did not award a high score of 3.00 due to the absence of specific conservation or sustainability goals.

Assessments have not been conducted for most Dungeness Crab populations due to the absence of fishery-independent assessment data. Although there are some exceptions such as the Alaska Department of Fish and Game's surveys of Dungeness Crabs in the Orca Inlet district of Prince William Sound (ADFG 2000), monitoring of populations is minimal among the fisheries.

Dungeness Crab catches in the U.S., are monitored using fish tickets, supplemented by shoreside sampling (Kaiser, pers. comm., 2002). However, not enough information on effort is collected (e.g. the specific location and duration of fishing activity) to enable managers to generate catch-per-unit-effort data and use this information as a proxy measure for population abundance (Colpo, pers. comm., 2005).

There are risks of over-capacity in the Dungeness Crab fishery. The 2004 – 2005 season was a year of record catches; however, the volume of Dungeness Crabs caught and brought to the market at the beginning of the season was too much for seafood processors in California to handle. Although illegal, there were reports of vessels dumping their catches overboard, after unsuccessfully waiting for days to unload them live at the processing plants (Chea 2004).

Fishers in California, Oregon, and Washington are required to obtain existing licenses to participate in the Dungeness Crab fishery. Only Washington fishery managers, however, limit the number of pots allowed in the fishery. Restricting fishing effort through pot limitations is critical, because it can stretch the fishing season out, preventing gluts of crabs to the market (Chea 2004). There is also over-capacity within the tribal fisheries (i.e., too many fishers). This sector is limited to a set percentage (50%) of the annual catch, however, which prevents there from being excess capacity throughout the Washington fishery (Barker, pers. comm., 2005).

Some fishers who have been excluded from Alaska's other fisheries due to regulations aimed to cut fishing effort have entered the West Coast Dungeness Crab fishery. In addition, some former groundfish fishers who participated in the boat buyback program have opted to buy crab-fishing boats (IntraFish 2005).

Limited-entry licenses and pot limit regulations have largely prevented over-expansion of the Dungeness Crab fishery. However, because Washington is the only state to limit the number of pots allowed in the fishery, we chose to subtract here.

Dungeness Crabs have not formally been declared overfished in any area, and, consequently, a recovery plan is not required.

There is no formal monitoring of bycatch in Dungeness Crab fisheries. However, fishery observers, who test the crabs’ shell hardness to determine when to open the fishery, have noted that the level of bycatch is very low. Dungeness Crabs are caught in traps that have escape rings to allow undersized crabs to escape. There is some bycatch of flatfish and roundfish in traps, but that level is also low. Some octopus are caught in Dungeness Crab traps and are generally sold (Colpo, pers. comm., 2005).

The Dungeness Crab fishery is highly selective and does not capture threatened, endangered, or protected species.

The Dungeness Crab fishery is highly selective.

The Dungeness Crab fishery is highly selective.