Crabbing is one of Puget Sound’s most popular noncommercial fisheries. Every Dungeness crab fisher is responsible for knowing and following the fishing rules, including complying with catch record card (CRC) requirements. Fishery managers rely on catch information provided by fishers to manage the Puget Sound Dungeness crab fishery and plan future seasons.

The health and quality of life of Puget Sound residents is partially dependent on their ability to collect local resources for ceremonial, subsistence and recreation foods. The act of collecting, preparing and sharing such foods maintains cultural knowledge and practices and often builds social relationships. Shellfish harvest is very important for tribal subsistence and ceremonial purposes. However, there are no consistent metrics easily compiled across tribes. Therefore, the indicator data will pertain to non-tribal catch only, with a recognition of the importance of this shellfish resource for the tribes.

• Crabbing is one of Puget Sound’s most popular noncommercial fisheries. Each year over 200,000 people purchase a Puget Sound Dungeness crab endorsement card, which is required to harvest crab for personal use. 
• Between 2007 and 2023, harvest for personal use peaked in 2015. That year crabbers caught nearly 2.7 million pounds of Dungeness crab across Puget Sound. Harvest has since declined and in 2023 crabbers caught approximately 1.4 million pounds.
• Most of the annual harvest comes from two marine basins: North Puget Sound which includes Marine Area 7 (covering the San Juan Islands and Bellingham Bay) and the Whidbey Basin which includes Marine Areas 8-1 and 8-2 (covering east of Whidbey Island including Skagit Bay and Port Susan).
• Since 2015 an increasing number of harvest closures have been required within South-Central Puget Sound and Hood Canal. As a result, total harvest has declined, and the progress of this indicator is determined to be “Getting Worse”.
• In 2018 Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Tribal Co-Managers closed Marine Areas 11 and 13 in the South-Central Puget Sound Basin to any harvest. The closures were in response to continued declines in the Dungeness crab population. Marine Area 11 has reopened to harvest on a limited basis since 2020. Limited harvest quotas have been in place in Marine Area 10 (Seattle-Bremerton area) from 2018 through 2022. Marine Area 12 (Hood Canal) – South of Ayock Point has been closed since 2019. Marine Area 12 south of Ayock Point and Marine Area 13 were closed to recreational crabbing for both summer and winter 2023. Marine Area 10 and Marine Area 11 were closed to recreational crabbing for only winter 2023.
• See a map showing the estimated annual Dungeness crab catch for the 11 Puget Sound Marine Areas.

Each year between 200,000 and 250,000 people purchase a Puget Sound Dungeness crab endorsement card, signaling their interest to harvest crab in Puget Sound. While the total pounds harvested has gone up and down over the years, the number of endorsement cards issued has stayed fairly stable. 

Total annual personal use Dungeness crab harvest (millions of pounds caught) and number of Dungeness crab endorsements issued in Puget Sound.

Dungeness crab are harvested throughout Puget Sound, however, crab are more abundant in North Puget Sound compared to South Puget Sound. The majority of the harvest for personal use occurs in the waters around the San Juan Islands and east of Whidbey Island (see map of harvest by Marine Area).

WDFW and Tribal Co-Managers monitor Dungeness crab populations and harvest data in order to set recreational crabbing seasons. Since the fishery started, no areas have been closed for an entire season until 2018 when Marine Areas 11 (Tacoma-Vashon Island) and 13 (South Puget Sound) were closed in response to continued declines in the Dungeness crab population since 2013. The closure is intended to protect crab from harvest and allow populations time to recover. However, WDFW reports that harvest pressure over the past decade is not the primary factor in the decline of Dungeness crab, and that there are likely other environmental factors limiting their production. Marine Area 11 was reopened to summer harvest on a limited basis in 2020, 2021, and 2022. Limited harvest quotas have been in place in Marine Area 10 (Seattle-Bremerton area) from 2018 through 2022. Marine Area 12 (Hood Canal) – South of Ayock Point has been closed since 2019. 

State and Tribal co-managers work together to plan crab seasons. Dungeness crab harvest for personal use accounts for, on average, 20 percent of the state’s total harvest. The state commercial crab fishery accounts for another 30 percent, and the tribal fishery comprises the remaining half of the total harvest. The 1994 federal court ruling known as the Rafeedie Decision, confirmed that the tribes had reserved harvest rights to half of the harvestable shellfish on most Washington beaches. 

Information on commercial crabbing in Washington is available through WDFW Commercial Dungeness crab fishery. Information on tribal fishing is available through the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

WDFW: Dungeness crab

WDFW works to manage and restore Dungeness crab in Washington waters (March 11, 2020)

Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission: Rafeedie Decision