Crabs
Posted Wednesday Nov. 15, 2006 -------- It is crab season again -- time for the annual dance with weather, fishing gear, fish buyers and the crabs. Will the crabs listen to the music and dance into the crab traps? What will the fish buyers pay? Will there be a window of good weather? Will the bad weather sand in the crab traps? Will the northern boats bring 1000s of traps and harvest all the available crabs?
This year follows a big harvest in the past two years. Early on, fish buyers and fishermen agreed to an opening price -- $1.85 a pound. Within minutes boats headed out to set their gear. The 38 crab fishermen of Bodega Bay had already stacked boat decks with crab pots. Good fishing weather also listened to the music and danced in with sunshine, fair winds and modest waves.
Last year, buyers only offered $1.50 a pound. Fishermen finally agreed to $1.75. That dance delayed the opening by two weeks. Bad weather hampered the few weeks until Christmas. The lucrative Thanksgiving market was already lost.
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Cooking Crabs at the Tides Wharf
By noon Thursday The Tides had shipped 20,000 pounds of cooked crab. Four 18-wheelers waited in the parking lot for additiional loads.
From a low of 910,000 pound harvested in 1999-2000 the central California Dungeness crab fishery has rebounded to a high of nearly 6 million pounds in 2004-2005. Last year the harvest was 5.1 million. The central California crab fishery is Half Moon Bay to Bodega Bay.
Over the past 20 years the most contentious part of the dance is the Northern boats. The season north of Fort Bragg opens at least two weeks later. Northern boats with crab permits head south and harvest crabs along the central coast. In the past few years those boats have increased their crab pot inventory dramatically. Central California crabbers say the Northern boats take most of the available crabs here and then head north to work the northern season. The Northern boats handle upwards of 1000 crab pots on each boat. Most central California crabbers have 200 to 400 pots per boat. Central California crabbers have asked that boats have pot limits. The legislature has passed those limits twice in the past two years. But Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has twice vetoed the bill.
A group of Northern boats anchored off Point Reyes in the days leading up to the season opener. The Northern boats accepted the buyers offer of $1.85 a pound Monday. The central California crabbers had no choice but to also accept the $1.85.
Northern boats dominate the central California crab fishery in the number of crab pots set, the amount of crabs landed and the price paid to fishermen.
This season's catch is expected to be about the same size as last year. Individual crabs are expected to weigh slightly less while tasting as good as ever.
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This basket of crabs weighs about 500 pounds
Packing 50 pound boxes with crab and ice
Packing Crabs at the Tides Wharf
And now for something a little bit different:
The story of the goat that got the guys at the golf course
Posted Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2006 -------- A boy goat made a complete nusiance of itself at some homes in South Bodega Harbour for the past week. Animal control officers summoned to capture and remove the animal failed.
The goat appeared on the decks of various homes in the golf course subdivision late at night. He rattled the sliding glass doors awakening residents. The goat also had a taste for green growie delectables usually of the kind the residents want to keep growing.
After several days of attempts by Animal Control, Bodega Bay Firefighters were called. C shift responded. Firefighter Justin Fox, a farm boy at heart, lassoed the critter with Dave Bynum's help. They transported the goat to the Bodega Bay fire station.
A call to the Hageman ranch and the goat found a new home. Animal Control assisted by transporting the goat to the Hageman Ranch. The goat is a young buck that hasn't had care for some time.
The goat that got the guys at the golf course. Click to see additional photos.
CalTrans builds a wall
Posted Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2006 -------- The entire road project on Highway One in Bodega Bay is like the sign when approaching from the south. The sign warns of an upcoming sharp right turn. The road then gently turns left.
Several years ago a pedestrian walking alongside Highway One near Lucas Wharf fell into a hole adjacent to the guardrail. The hole was created by runoff from the last oversize storm (2002).
After dusting himself off, our pedestrian didn’t think much more about the hole -- until earlier this year.
Construction crews shut down the highway and started digging just to the east of the pavement. The contractor didn’t stop digging until they moved 3100 cubic yards (or thereabouts) of dirt. They created a new portion of highway about 50 to 100 feet east and about 1000 feet long.
All the dirt was piled to the east of the new portion and then covered with runoff protection. Longtime resident Glenice Carpenter estimated the pile at 25 feet. “I used to be able to see the mouth of Tomales Bay. Now I’ve got a pile of dirt.”
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Glenice Carpenter in front of the dirt pile.
Eventually the contractor will finish the retaining wall under the former highway. Then the new bypass will be deconstructed; the dirt moved to its original location; the utilities moved from their current temporary poles back to their original poles; and the original highway replaced in its original path.
All this moving the highway east and then west comes because of federal dollars -- $1.4 million of them. The dollars are fixing storm damage.
The contractor is finishing building the steel I-beam reinforced retaining wall. A dozen holes over 20 feet deep were drilled and filled with the steel and 115 cubic yards of concrete. An additional 195 cubic yards of concrete is backfill on the retaining wall.
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Workers fill pier excavation holes with concrete
Michelle Sqyer, spokeswoman for CalTrans, says the project will be complete by this coming spring. The retaining wall that will reinforce unstable slopes will have additional storm drainage installed.
Memorable in the year before the construction actually started was the waterspout. PG&E crews were drilling holes to anchor the new temporary poles managed to hit a major Bodega Bay Public Utility water pipe. A 30-foot water geyser doused the Highway One traffic.
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PG&E work crews drilled into an eight-inch water main
