The boat launch ramp float at the Oak Harbor Marina reopened on June 29 after being closed for over a year — just in time for crab season.

Unfortunately, the tasty crustaceans have proved illusive this year so far, with many pots being pulled up with few crabs of correct size and gender.

According to Sabrina Combs, the city’s communications manager, the work on the boat ramp consisted of replacing the float’s boards, decking, piles, rubber snubbers and brackets that were damaged by an improperly tied boat that put too much pressure on the structure during a windstorm.

Combs said the city is still gathering invoices to calculate total repair costs. Among the funds used, there was $78,000 paid from the insurance claim from the boater who was liable for the damages and $60,000 from marina funds.

The ramp was closed since April 4, 2022, and according to the city’s website it was initially expected to open when crab season began July 1.

The ramp fix has mixed opinions among crabbers.

Mark Aquino, who has been crabbing in the area for about 10 years, said he is satisfied with the results and the timing.

“Last year it wasn’t there, it was hell trying to launch the boat,” he said. “Especially when it was windy.”

Steven Acord, another crabber, said the dock is “300% better” than it used to be, and longer.

“It took forever,” he said, referring to the repair work. Last year, he paid $100 to use the ramp, though he could not use it.

Tim Bergman, on the other hand, said he believes the float is at least 20 feet too short because the ramp isn’t at the right angle to launch a boat, and that it took too long to reopen. Tim Thompson thinks the problem is its shallowness.

“You gotta basically dunk your truck to the exhaust pipe to pull your boat out,” he said.

This year’s crabbing season opening weeks have been disappointing for many. The season is July 1-Sept. 4 in the waters surrounding Whidbey Island, but only on Thursday through Monday.

Thompson and his wife, Amy, returned from crabbing with empty pots as they only found females — which crabbers are forbidden from taking.

“We’ve lived here off and on for 20 years and never have had a problem with going out and catching our limit,” she said. “So this is the first time it’s been very discouraging.”

Some saw better harvests, like Aquino, who caught eight crabs on one day. However, he believes that crabbing has become more challenging as the years go by and said that other crabbers he knows share the same feeling.

The same concern was echoed on the Whidbey Island Community group on Facebook, with many users lamenting a worse opening weekend than usual, or ever.

Ralph Downes is an enforcement officer at the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. The department has received more crab-related complaints than usual, but it isn’t because of an abundance issue as populations have remained about the same as previous seasons.

“The tides really weren’t good for an opener; we had extreme lows and high highs,” he said. “Which is not conducive to catching crab.”

Fast tides are to blame, as well.

“If the water is moving fast for much of the day, it really narrows the window of opportunity to catch crab,” he said.

Downes expects that things should level off and catch rates should improve later on in the season.

Additionally, this year the tribes harvested more of their allocation than they normally do prior to the recreational opener, Downes explained. This, however, only caused the remaining crabs to simply be more scattered and harder to find, but did not affect the recreational crabbers’ allocation.

In response to pot theft reports, he advises crabbers to be more careful with their gear. Though he acknowledges that pot thieves are a real issue, he said that many simply get lost due to inattention to where they are left or the quality of the gear.

Thousands of derelict pots are fished out of Puget Sound’s waters every year, Downes said. During the first three days of this year’s crabbing season, he said the state removed about 200 recreational crab pots, the vast majority of them being empty, particularly the Danielson-style traps, which crabs can easily escape.

Mark Aquino’s July 6 harvest. (Photo by Luisa Loi)