Scientists, Crab Fishermen and Conservationists Join Forces to Keep Whales Safe Off California

SAN FRANCISCO - For years, California's Dungeness crab season and the whales that migrate along its coast have been a problem to be managed, at times through costly delays to the season. On Thursday, three organizations with different stakes in that problem announced they would try to solve it together.

The Marine Mammal Center, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations and The Nature Conservancy said they had formed the Dungeness Crab and Whale Conservation Collaborative, a partnership the groups described as bringing together scientists, commercial fishing and conservationists "to protect whales while supporting a healthy, open California Dungeness crab fishery." The work is supported by a three-year grant from the Clean Break Fund, according to the announcement, which did not disclose the size of the grant.

At the center of the effort is a gap in knowledge. "Right now, one of the biggest obstacles to protecting whales in this fishery is simply not knowing, in real time, where they are," said Kathi George, director of the Schwartz Cetacean Conservation Program at The Marine Mammal Center. "By bringing together different monitoring technologies, scientific expertise and the knowledge of the fishers who are on the water every day, we have an opportunity to build a much clearer picture of whale presence and behavior."

The partners have divided the work. The Marine Mammal Center will lead development of an integrated whale monitoring system, combining data from vessel surveys, drones, shore-based observations and underwater acoustic gliders, the groups said. The fishermen's federation will bring commercial fishermen directly into the science through industry-led vessel surveys and participation in entanglement investigations. The Nature Conservancy will lead efforts to expand industry-led vessel-based whale surveys and satellite-based whale detections, advance gear recovery technology and support improvements to the data systems and policies that inform fishery management.

Lisa Damrosch, executive director of the federation, said the arrangement put fishermen in the room from the outset. "California's commercial fishermen have a long history of finding solutions to challenges on the water," Damrosch said. "This partnership brings that experience together with some of the best minds in science and conservation, with fishermen at the table from the very beginning."

The findings are meant to reach regulators. The collaborative will share its results with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and other partners to help inform the department's Risk Assessment and Mitigation Program, known as RAMP, and related efforts to manage entanglement risk, according to the announcement. "This collaboration will help strengthen the information that supports management decisions," said Kate Kauer of The Nature Conservancy. "By helping management systems better incorporate new data and respond to changing conditions, we can improve outcomes for whales and fishing communities."

The stakes for coastal towns are economic as well as ecological. "For generations, the Dungeness crab season has sustained our local fishing communities and a vibrant coastal economy with a California staple, but in recent years, costly delays have cut into its most critical catch," said Chris Larsen, co-founder and executive chairman of Ripple Inc. and founder of the Clean Break Fund. The new collaboration, he said, "brings scientists, conservationists and fishermen into balance by deploying the most effective, modern methods available, sharing data in real time and informing more dynamic fishery management decision-making."

In a joint statement, the partners framed the project less as a technical fix than as an exercise in trust. "Protecting whales and supporting a healthy fishing industry are goals we can work toward together," they said. "Addressing a challenge this complex takes collaboration, a willingness to learn from one another and a commitment to finding solutions grounded in science and the experience of people who work on the water."

Whether better data will translate into fewer closures and fewer entangled whales is a question the next three seasons will begin to answer. For now, the people who study whales and the people who catch crab have agreed to look at the same water together.

Sources: The Nature Conservancy, "New Collaboration Launches to Protect Whales and Support California's Dungeness Crab Fishery," news release, San Francisco, October 22, 2026, https://www.nature.org/en-us/newsroom/ca-collaboration-protect-whales-crab-fishery/