"If you want Dungeness crab for Thanksgiving, you are going to have to get it yourself." That was the first line of the Times-Standard's report on Oct. 31, and for Trinidad it's close to literal.
The recreational Dungeness season is scheduled to open Saturday, Nov. 7. Trinidad is north of this year's domoic acid closure, so its waters are on the opening list. The opener comes with three conditions. Recreational crab pots are prohibited along the whole coast from Oregon to Point Conception. The commercial fleet can't fish until at least Jan. 1, 2027. And the boat launch at Trinidad Harbor closed for the season in September.
Put those together and, apart from crab taken by hand, November crab in Trinidad has to come from a hoop net or a crab snare. Many of those nets will be set from shore or the pier or by people who already have a boat on the water. Each one has to be pulled and checked at least every two hours.
A year ago, Nov. 7 would have meant nothing here
In 2025 the opener skipped the North Coast entirely. On Oct. 24, 2025, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife delayed the recreational fishery from the Oregon border south to the Sonoma/Mendocino County line because crab there carried unhealthy levels of domoic acid. Trinidad was inside that closure. Humboldt County's last closed area didn't open until Dec. 30, 2025, according to CDFW's release that day. The California Department of Public Health lifted its warning against eating crab guts for the Cape Mendocino to Reading Rock stretch on Jan. 26, 2026.
This year the problem is farther south. The 2026 public health closure runs from Cape Mendocino to the Ten Mile State Marine Reserve, which covers southern Humboldt and northern Mendocino and keeps the Shelter Cove area closed.
| 2025 season | 2026 season | |
|---|---|---|
| Recreational opener in Trinidad waters | Delayed for domoic acid; Humboldt's last closed area opened Dec. 30, 2025 | Scheduled for Nov. 7, 2026 |
| Domoic acid closure | Oregon border to Sonoma/Mendocino line | Cape Mendocino to Ten Mile State Marine Reserve |
| Recreational crab pots | Restricted in Zones 1, 3 and 4 | Prohibited Oregon border to Point Conception until at least Jan. 1, 2027 |
| Hoop nets and crab snares | Not affected by the pot restriction | Not affected by the pot restriction |
| Commercial season | Delayed in all zones | Delayed until at least Jan. 1, 2027 |
So the season opens on time this year, and the gear rules decide how people can fish it.
Why the pots are out this year
The pot ban is about whales. According to the Times-Standard, CDFW has counted two humpbacks entangled in commercial Dungeness gear so far in 2026 and five more in gear it couldn't identify. Aerial surveys in mid-October counted 34 humpbacks in Fishing Zone 2 and 38 in Zone 3.
Under current rules, entanglement numbers like these require the CDFW director to delay the commercial season and restrict recreational traps for the rest of the year. The CDFW announcement also issued a Fleet Advisory for every fishing zone, asking crabbers not to set any gear where whales are present.
A pot sits on the bottom with a long line running up to a buoy, and it can stay there for days. A hoop net comes up every couple of hours, which is why the state treats it differently. The pot ban doesn't affect hoop nets, crab snares, also called loop traps, or taking crab by hand, so those are the legal ways to catch Dungeness in Trinidad's waters until the state lifts the ban.
What the two-hour rule looks like from the rail
Hoop nets come with rules of their own, and they shape the day more than a pot ever did. The state's recreational ocean fishing regulations say:
- The owner or operator has to raise each hoop net to the surface and check it at intervals of no more than two hours.
- A net left unchecked for more than two hours counts as abandoned, and anyone authorized to enforce the rules can seize it.
- North of Point Arguello there's no limit on how many hoop nets one person can possess or deploy. The exception is crabbing from a public pier, where the limit is two.
- Nets set by people on shore or on structures connected to shore don't need a surface buoy. Nets set from a boat need a marked main buoy carrying the operator's GO ID number.
In practice, a pot could soak overnight, but a hoop net means staying with your gear. You can't drop a net off the end of a structure, walk back up the hill to the house and come back the next morning. A hoop net session lasts as long as you're willing to stand there and pull. CDFW's crab page links the current daily bag limits, size limits and regulation summaries. Anyone heading out on Nov. 7 should read them there.
The harbor is in its off-season
Trinidad's harbor comes into this season on its winter footing. The Trinidad Rancheria owns and operates Trinidad Seascape Pier & Harbor, and the Tribe has kept the harbor and surrounding property open to the public for more than 25 years. The boat launch runs May 1 to Sept. 13, Wednesday through Sunday, 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., at $45 a launch. It's closed now and the page says it will reopen in May 2027.
That makes the launch season and the crab opener almost exactly opposite. In 2026 the launch closed eight weeks before the first legal day for Dungeness. Moorings are still listed on the same page at $650 for the season, $375 a month, $245 a week or $50 a night. With the launch closed, crabbing from a boat this fall belongs mostly to people whose boats are already in the water.
The pier needs a closer look because of how the state defines it. CDFW's licensing page says:
"A sport fishing license is not required to take fish for any purpose other than profit by means of angling from a public pier in the ocean waters of the state."
The same page adds that size limits, bag limits, seasons and report card requirements still apply on a public pier. The regulations define a public pier as a publicly owned structure with unrestricted free access for the general public, built or used mainly for angling. The Trinidad Pier is owned and run by the Rancheria, so it's worth asking at Seascape about licensing and pier rules before you set a net there. The Seascape shop sells bait and tackle and handles launch passes and mooring rentals, and the Seascape Restaurant is on the same property.
What goes on the plate
Since commercial boats can't fish, any locally landed Dungeness on a Trinidad table this November comes from recreational gear. Food safety rules apply to that crab too. The California Department of Public Health's Oct. 30 warning tells people not to eat any meat or viscera from sport-caught Dungeness taken between Cape Mendocino and the Ten Mile State Marine Reserve, where dangerous domoic acid levels showed up in both. For other open stretches of coast, CDPH recommends removing and throwing away the viscera as a best practice.
CDPH's latest crab test results cover Sept. 28 to Oct. 23, 2026. None of the Klamath River or George Reef samples to the north was above the FDA action level. Trinidad wasn't one of the sample sites in that round. The state's domoic acid closure information line is (831) 649-2883, and CDPH's biotoxin line is (510) 412-4643 or (800) 553-4133.
The dates between now and the new year
The pot ban and the commercial delay both run to "at least Jan. 1, 2027." The state will decide whether to lift them on that date:
- Saturday, Nov. 7: The recreational Dungeness season is scheduled to open in Trinidad waters, with no pots allowed.
- Thursday, Nov. 26: Thanksgiving. Locally landed Dungeness for the holiday can only come from recreational gear.
- Thursday, Dec. 17: CDFW's next risk assessment, as reported by the Times-Standard. The director will weigh the available data along with a recommendation from the Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group.
- Jan. 1, 2027: The earliest date for a commercial opener and for recreational pots to return, if the Dec. 17 assessment supports it.
The Lost Coast Outpost printed CDFW's full announcement, and the agency's Whale Safe Fisheries page is where updates will appear.
This post is general information about published fishing and health rules, not legal advice. Check CDFW and the Rancheria for your own situation before you set a net.
At The Land Man Office, we know Trinidad's harbor and its seasons, from crab openers to the shoreline access questions that come up when a home or parcel near the water changes hands. If you're weighing a coastal property and want to talk through how access and seasonal rules play out on the ground, Contact Us.
