The San Francisco call., 1896-03-06
The Industry in the Bay Has
Grown to Threatening
Proportions.
.pRoHIBIToRY' LAWS NEEDED.
Fish ommissioners Have Become
Alarmed at the Wholesale
Slaughter.

The Fish Commissioners are deeply con :
cerned over the imminent determination
of the crab in and about San Francisco
bay, and propose to have clause inserted
in the game laws at the next session OF the
Legislature to save this edible fish.
1t was only recently that the matter was
brought under the attention of the State
authorities. Then an investigation was
made into the condition OF the crab-fshing
industry, with a view of ascertaining in
what measure this rumored determination
was progressing. The facts cleaned were
a surprise to those interested in preserving
the crab and proved to be interesting ews
for fishermen themselves.
Itiswell known that the crab lives almost
exclusively about the bay of San Fran
cisco, and that conditions, though ap-
parently alike in other places along the
coast of California. are not favorable to the
crab. A test is being made at Monterey
and San Diego with transplanted crabs
from San Francisco, but for all practical
purposes at present the supply of crabs
must come from this bay. Consequently
the enormous catch is regarded with grave
suspicious, and it is held by those who
understand this fish that some protective
m eaSureS must be adopted.
Small and insignificant as the industry
of crab-catching may appear it is never
theIess an important source of revenue.
At the present time there are about sixty
boats engaged in this industry in San
Francisco. The business is largely spur-
sued outside the heads of the Golden Gate
and along the south shore. Each boat has
two men who work in partnership. Their
average daily catch IS ten dozen crabs to
boat. Now this makes total of 1900 a
day, or ,62S, 900 crabs year. from which
figures il is inferred that the crab cannot
last many years. The average price OBJ
tanned from retailers by the crab-hshers is
so cents a dozen, and at that rate the fish
ers earn above all expenses about $12 a
week each. These figures were obtained
at the wharf from men who have watched
the fishing industry in all Its phases. The
Fish Commission estimated that in 1892
the total amount received from crab fish
ing was S102, 900, which, at the rate of 80
cents dozen, would make the entire catch
for the year about 2, 500, 900.
President Murdoch of the commission
said there were well-grounded fears for the
future of the crab in these waters.
'tThere are more boats in the business
now than ever BEFORE" he said, "and ii
has grown to immense proportions. The
female crab is taken with the male, and
we nave 1OuNu Inat IhIiIIOhs, proDaDly, o.
spawn are thus lost The female is a
small, punv fish in comparison with the
male, which is far and away better for
food Indeed, the female is hardly an
edible fish But everything is fish that
comes into the crabcatchers' nets. By
protecting the female the crab may be
preserved for future generations. That
can be done by the fishermen dropping the
females back into the water from their
nets, and this we propose to make com
passed by the Legislature"
The crabs caught here are shipped in
large quantities to Southern California, to
Sacramento and other interior cities, and
this being new development of the in.
dustry there is a strong temptation to ex-
tend the business.