Crabbers Jerry Howard, left, and Willy Goergen are ready to go. The Pilot/Steve Kadel

Christmas won’t be merry for Brookings-Harbor crab fishermen.

The commercial season from Gold Beach to Point Arena, Calif., a couple of hours north of San Francisco, has been delayed until Jan. 15 ­ – the latest local start ever.

“We have already written off Christmas,” said fisherman Bill Wood. “The tree is there, but there’s nothing underneath it.”

The recreational crab season from Gold Beach to the California border also will be closed until Jan. 15.

 Meanwhile, the commercial and recreational seasons just north from Gold Beach start Dec. 15. Recreational crab fishing in California has been allowed since Nov. 1.

Commercial crab fishermen can set their gear three days before the season opens, so lights of crab boats off most of the Oregon coast may be visible as early as Dec. 12.

The season was to have opened Dec. 1 all along the Oregon coast, but fishery managers delayed the start because crab didn’t have enough meat. The Brookings-Harbor area crab were still underweight in the last tests, forcing a further closure here.

“We have had split openings before,” said Justin Ainsworth, a shellfish biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The commercial season south of Gold Beach definitely will start on Jan. 15, he said. 

“This is a new thing for us to sit and wait while everybody else fishes,” said commercial fisherman Bernie Lindley. “It’s a hardship. We’ve had two- or three-week delays before, but never six weeks.

“We need cash flow. We’re running out of money. Not having the cash flow makes it hard at Christmas.”

Lindley estimated that two or three of Brookings-Harbor’s 35 commercial crab fishermen might decide to fish out of Charleston this month. But that means they would have to unload at Charleston because the Brookings-Harbor port would be closed, he said.

“You’d have to move your whole operation up to Charleston,” Lindley said.

Gold Beach does not have a crab fishery because the bar there is too dangerous to negotiate, he added. A commercial boat crash on the bar in 2006 capsized and killed some crew members, Lindley said.

Wood, who operates a retail crab stand at the Port of Brookings-Harbor, is among those who are declining to fish from Charleston.

Those who do go north to begin the season Dec. 15 must wait an additional 30 days before being allowed to fish in the southern area that will open Jan. 15.

The closure is a financial hardship, Wood said, because half of his annual income usually comes in December.

“I can’t get any crabs for my stand,” he said. “It’s not just me, it’s everybody. This is really going to affect the community. Nobody is geared up for this late a deal. It’s going to be a horrible thing.”

However, Lindley said there’s one bright side to the delay. A later start locally might mean higher prices further along in the season.

“The price of crab always goes up as the season goes on,” he said.

Lindley said prices last year started at $1.675 per pound. The price rose because demand exceeded supply and continued to increase over time, he said.

Processors and fishermen were to decide this year’s starting price during meetings Friday and today.

Lindley said local fishermen need to be patient.

“The good news is that crab are not going anywhere,” he said. “They are not going to die of old age while we’re waiting to harvest.”

Similar attitudes prevailed in Crescent City as fishermen there adjusted to the later start.

“It would be nice to have some extra money for the holidays,” said crab fisherman Corey Munger. “But nobody wants thin crab.”

Brigg Lindsey, plant manager Alber Seafoods in Crescent City, is looking to other locations for a supply of crab.

“We’d love to have local crab, but we have to keep our doors open,” he said. “We have to ride out this wave until the season opens here, too.”