- Elaine Weinreb
- A truck unloads crab pots at the Trinidad Pier.
At the April 9 Humboldt County Board of Supervisors meeting, the security check-in station resembled a metropolitan airport with a long line of people stretched out the courthouse doors and halfway down the stairs to Fifth Street. All seats in the chamber were filled, the space between the chairs and the wall was filled with people standing, and others waited outside the door for a chance to speak.
The source of the commotion was a sudden and unexpected closure of the Dungeness crab fishery. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife had ordered all crab fishermen throughout the state to remove their gear from the ocean by April 15.
The supervisors had prepared a resolution of support for the crab fishermen, which was supposed to appear on the consent calendar, where routine or non-controversial matters are collectively approved with a single vote and without discussion. However, Supervisor Rex Bohn removed the resolution from the consent calendar and opened it for conversation, giving an opportunity for members of the audience to speak.
For the next hour, an array of commercial fishermen and their supporters, ranging in age from grizzled old-timers to fresh-faced teenagers, told the supervisors how they had suddenly and without warning lost their sole means of support.