Business & LaborEnvironment & Natural ResourcesNoyo Harbor

Commercial crab boats put out pots on the Mendocino Coast

Photo of Frank Hartzell Frank Hartzell Send an email January 16, 2021
35 1 minute read

FORT BRAGG, 1/15/21 — Noyo Harbor crab boats were loading up Thursday morning, after a holdout for higher prices ended with a compromise this week. Other ports are already bringing Dungeness crabs back in, but an agreement in Fort Bragg had pots being set yesterday, fishers and processors said. The pots will be left out for several days, with boats expected to deliver crabs to the docks on Saturday and Sunday.

The season was delayed due to risks to migrating gray whales, but then when the season officially opened Dec. 23, the crab fishers, united as a group, refused to go fishing until they got better prices (read our previous coverage here). The processors wanted to pay closer to $2 per pound and the fishers wanted over $3 per pound with a settlement being reached in the high $2 per pound range with the price going up, fishers said. Early reports indicate the crab supply in the ocean is low in 2021.

Crabbers loading up pots on Jan. 14, 2021 — a late start to the season. (Frank Hartzell / The Mendocino Voice)

The post Commercial crab boats put out pots on the Mendocino Coast appeared first on The Mendocino Voice | Mendocino County, CA.

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Photo of Frank Hartzell Frank Hartzell Send an email January 16, 2021
35 1 minute read
Photo of Frank Hartzell

Frank Hartzell

Frank Hartzell has spent his lifetime as a curious anthropologist in a reporter's fedora. His first news job was chasing news on the streets of Houston with high school buddy and photographer James Mason, back in 1986. Then Frank graduated from Humboldt State and went to Great Gridley as a reporter, where he bonded with 1000 people and told about 3000 of their stories. In Marysville at the Appeal Democrat, the sheltered Frank got to see both the chilling depths and amazing heights of humanity. From there, he worked at the Sacramento Bee covering Yuba-Sutter and then owned the Business Journal in Yuba City, which sold 5000 subscriptions to a free newspaper. Frank then got a prestigious Kiplinger Investigative Reporting fellowship and was city editor of the Newark Ohio, Advocate and then came back to California for 4 years as managing editor of the Napa Valley Register before working as a Dominican University professor, then coming to Fort Bragg to be with his aging mom, Betty Lou Hartzell, and working for the Fort Bragg Advocate News. Frank paid the bills during that decade + with a successful book business. He has worked for over 50 publications as a freelance writer, including the Mendocino Voice and Anderson Valley Advertiser, along with construction and engineering publications. He has had the thrill of learning every day while writing. Frank is now living his dream running MendocinoCoast.News with wife, Linda Hartzell, and web developer, Marty McGee, reporting from Fort Bragg, California.
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