Courtesy: US Fish & Wildlife Service
Dungeness crab 

Crab season won't officially end until the last day of June, but the local seafood sensation...Dungeness crab... are likely to be harder to find on ice or on menus before that.

That's due to new restrictions on both commercial and recreational crabbing beginning at noon on the 15th.

The added rules aren't without reason----they're prompted by endangered Humpbacks who are heading back toward Alaska after wintering off Baja.

It's not the traps that are the problem per-se, it's the ropes and floats that let crabbers haul in their catch.

Geoff Shester is with the environmental group Oceana.

"The traps that are used to catch Dungeness crab are attached to a long line and a buoy that goes to the surface. Over the last three years, the number of entanglements have actually gone above the regulatory triggers for management action."

As of noon on May 15th recreational crabbers are prohibited from using crab traps south of the Mendocino County line, though hoop nets and snares may still be used.

Also as of noon on the 15th commercial crabbing with traps will be prohibited north of the Mendocino County line at depths deeper than thirty fathoms.