By Pamela Cruz. Pen sula 360 Press [P360P]
Local fishermen will be on the water next Monday, Jan. 11, bringing delicious, sweet Dungeness crab to tables this weekend after San Francisco fishing boat owners and the Seafood Marketing Association reached an agreement to safely reopen the business.
According to the Half Moon Bay Seafood Marketing Association (HMBSMA), it took an extraordinary level of communication and unity among a diverse fleet to wait so long to fish, self-regulate a start date and pre-soak under a "gentlemen's agreement" to get back on track.
The agreement for a safe start process was reached among fishermen in Bodega Bay, San Francisco, Half Moon Bay, Vallejo, Santa Cruz, Moss Landing and Monterey in late December to mitigate uncertainty and provide a safer start for the entire fleet.
When a price was agreed upon last Friday, January 8, the process in the agreement was also enacted and this resulted in the established time, which was scheduled for 8:00 am this Monday and a hauling time at 8:00 am on Wednesday, January 13.
The need for this agreement was to reduce the days and dangers that can follow what fishermen call a "shotgun start," a scenario where a price agreement and a start of fishing in another region is the equivalent of a gun shot in a race.
This results in local ships laden with gear being forced to disperse and rush out to sea with only an hour's notice, in sometimes dangerous conditions, but for 2021 this scenario has been avoided and is expected to set a new precedent for the future.
So this weekend the fishermen are making preparations for