Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen is leading an effort to extend the Northern California crabbing season that has steadily shrunk over the past six years, taking up the cause of fishermen who claim their industry has been dying in the face of regulations meant to protect migrating whales.

State regulators implemented a system known as RAMP in 2020 that automatically delays or closes the commercial Dungeness crab season when humpback whale sightings or entanglements in crab gear reach a set threshold. Since then, the season — which once ran from November through summer — has largely been pushed to a January start, with closures arriving in spring.

For years, local fishermen have bemoaned what they claim (opens in new tab) is a blunt-force approach. Larsen is launching an initiative to expand the commercial crabbing season with the aid of a dedicated legal team so local fishermen can again start crabbing as early as November. 

Larsen said the preference would be for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to work with the fishing industry to revise how the season’s start and end dates are set. But if those efforts fail, he’s willing to fund legal action. 

Larsen and his allies argue that the state’s approach is arbitrary, not scientifically sound, and unfairly targets fishermen when other industries, such as cargo shipping, also contribute to whale deaths. Moreover, they say regulators lack access to necessary equipment and data to properly track whale movements.

“It just makes my blood boil,” Larsen said. “There are lots of hard-working people who have had their livelihoods destroyed because of a poorly designed policy. It doesn’t have to be this way.” 

Congressmen Sam Liccardo and Ro Khanna also support reexamining the current rule making system. The pair recently co-sponsored a separate whale protection bill called the Save Willy Act (opens in new tab), which would create a dedicated whale monitoring desk at the U.S. Coast Guard’s San Francisco station. Separate from Larsen’s potential legal action, the lawmakers pledged to help bring stakeholders to the table to work toward a policy solution that balances wildlife conservation with fishing industry concerns. 

“We can find a win-win policy solution that provides consistency and clarity on this issue,” Khanna said. 

“Real-time whale location data will protect marine life without adding more regulations on commercial fishermen and crabbers,” Liccardo added. 

John Mellor, a 45-year commercial crabber, said his business has lost more than half its annual income since the San Francisco season was shortened.

“I knew right then and there that we would never fish during the holiday season again,” Mellor said, recalling when he first heard about the RAMP program.

With the crabbing window starting later and ending in spring rather than summer, he’s struggling to stay afloat financially. “You can’t find crew anymore because everyone knows there’s no money,” he said. “We’re barely making enough to pay off our debt.”

Catherine Kilduff, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, which lobbied for the whale protection rules, defended the existing policy, which she said was developed with input from “many stakeholders, including the fishing industry.” 

Most crabbers use underwater traps that are connected to a boat by a vertical rope, which whales can get entangled in. When the commercial season closes, they are authorized to continue crabbing only if they use ropeless gear, which sends traps to the surface with an inflatable device. Ropeless gear is more expensive to buy and maintain. 

“If lawmakers and private citizens are concerned, the most help they could provide would be to provide [pop-up] gear to Dungeness crab fishers, now that the state has authorized its use,” she said. 

A spokesperson for CDFW said the agency wouldn’t comment on pending proposals by elected officials, but emphasized the rules for the Dungeness crab fishery were designed to balance public health, resource sustainability, and economic considerations.

Larsen said he started paying attention when, like other locals, he noticed his family’s holiday Dungeness crab tradition disappearing. As seasons kept getting shorter, he wanted to support a local working community that lacked the financial resources to advocate for a change. 

“Automatic [closure] triggers do not account for the complexity of the issue and are not acceptable when you have new types of technology that can help you make wiser decisions in real time,” Larsen said. 

“The bottom line is, let’s be smarter about this issue.”