Little Cheer In Crab-Season Forecast -- Bad Weather, Overcompetition Add To Worries From Long-Delayed Start

WESTPORT, Grays Harbor County - Waves and worry ushered in the 1990 Dungeness crab season on the Washington coast today.

``I'd hate to see us lose some guys, but that's what could happen when conditions are like this,'' said Don Stedman, a veteran crab fisherman.

Charlie Sipila, skipper of the 42-foot-long South Side, agreed.

``Guys are going to be hungry and some of them may end up taking chances, and that's when you can get into trouble,'' he said.

Scores of crab boats, already delayed two days by winter storms, headed out of Westport this morning to set baited crab traps in the ocean. But skippers were uncertain how long they could work before this afternoon's receding tide would make navigation especially hazardous at the mouth of Grays Harbor. Had the weather and rough seas not prevented them, fishermen could have set out their crab pots Monday in preparation for today's opening.

``We're gonna at least go out and give a look,'' Stedman said.

Sipila and Stedman fear increased competition for a limited resource may prompt some fishermen to venture out in rougher weather than their boats can handle.

Crossing the bar can be particularly treacherous at the start of the season, when each boat carries hundreds of empty crab pots to set in the ocean. The round, 110-pound traps, stacked high on the deck, reduce a vessel's stability.

Trouble for the state's commercial crab fleet this year has

come in the form of company - an increasing number of boats and crab pots, many from other states.

``It's an undesirable situation,'' said Steve Barry, a state Fisheries Department biologist. ``The pie's going to get cut up into a lot smaller pieces.''

The estimated 300 or more boats participating in the catch may be roughly twice what the crab population should ideally support, Barry said, but the state does not limit the number of crab-fishing licenses.

``It's the last major open-access fishery,'' Barry said, noting that a legislative attempt to restrict it met with little success last year.

But it's not just the size of their piece of pie that's worried some fishermen recently, it's when they'll get any at all.

The crab season's usual Dec. 1 opening was delayed for 40 days because tests showed many crabs were still in a molting period, a growth phase in which crabs grow into new shells and are not desirable for consumption. Although the season continues through September, the bulk of the crab are caught in the first few weeks.

Ocean swells of 18 feet and wind gusting to 60 mph forced most of the fleet to stay at the dock Monday when fishermen had planned to set out their pots.

Leaning on the cast-iron stove in the wooden boat built by his father, Sipila tugged on the bill of his green corduroy cap and watched the driving rain lash nearby boats - the Rainbow, Marie II, Velfjord and Sleep Robber - all waiting at the dock.

``It's a struggle being a fisherman,'' he said, ``but there's nothing I'd rather do. I've been fishing on this boat since I was 6. For me, being here is like being at home.''

Only one boat, the 88-foot-long Controller Bay from Seattle, made its way out of the Westport harbor to set pots in the ocean Monday. Skipper Dennis Freed said the year-old blue steel boat - longer, wider and taller than almost any other vessel at Westport - was built to withstand conditions in Alaska's Bering Sea.

Washington's best Dungeness crab season on record helped trigger what many fishermen believe will be a troublesome year.

In the 1988-89 season, 21.9 million pounds of crab were caught off the Washington coast, nearly three times the 40-year average.

Although the state doesn't predict how large a crab harvest will be, few fishermen expect the 1990 catch to approach last year's numbers. In the past, crab populations have followed a rough 10-year cycle with few sustained peaks.

The delay in the start of crab season exacerbated the proliferation of out-of-state boats. Because other coastal states opened their crab seasons on schedule in November and December, fishermen were able to work the peak of those seasons and then come to Washington.

Ernie Summers, president of the Washington Dungeness Crab Fisherman's Association, said he expects a lean year for many Washington fishermen. Summers said most fishermen understood some delay was necessary to keep inferior crabs off the market, because delivering bad crabs causes the price to drop. But he said they did not expect the delay to last this long.

To Chris Nelson, of Nelson Crab Co. in Tokeland, Pacific County, the delay was a major mistake. ``Now there are so many boats and so much gear here, it's going to put a lot of fishermen out of business,'' he said.

Nelson said the state should have allowed fishing to begin in December, and let the fishermen sort the crab on their boats, putting the molting ones back in the ocean.

But Barry of the Fisheries Department said that practice often results in a high mortality rate to the prematurely harvested crab.

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CRAB CATCH

Washington state coastal commercial crab catch by season since 1950-51. In millions of pounds.

Average: 7.6 million pounds ;

Low: '81-82 2.6 million pounds ;

High: '88-89 21.9 million pounds ;

Source: Washington State Fisheries Department