When Whale Food Moves: Climate Change, Crab Traps, and Pop-Up Gear

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In 2014, a huge patch of unusually warm
water settled off the west coast

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of North America. Scientists nicknamed it
the blob.

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The cold, rich water that normally spreads
far offshore shrank to a thin strip along

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the coast, and every hungry animal
followed it.

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Humpbacks moved into the same waters where
crabbers had set thousands of traps,

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each one tied to a rope Running up to the
surface.

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And the result of that was that there were
crab traps that were left without ropes

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at all. And we're gonna talk about why
that happened and what the cost

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is of that happening on this episode of
the How to Protect the Ocean podcast.

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Welcome back. I'm your host, Andrew Loon,

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marine biologist and science communicator,

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here to talk to you about everything that
has to do with ocean news,

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ocean conservation, ocean science.

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And today and this week, we are talking
about how whales move through the water.

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earlier this week.

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We had an interview with Ashley Blauwass,

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who talked about lunch feeding and blue
whales and and baleen whales.

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And then we also talked on two episodes
ago about like the that actual lunch
feeding

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and what it takes, the energy it takes.

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Then we talked yesterday about the diving
and the diving response.

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And we learned how like giant whales,

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live their and dies by the finding the
densest patches of food,

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and how it finds it and what physiological
responses it takes to.

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Do that, whether they're diving,

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whether they're searching fruit or they're
lunging.

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But the thing is, what we don't talk a lot
about on this podcast,

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or what we don't really hear a lot about
in mainstream media,

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is that these patches of food move.

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And they move with circulation,

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they move with differences in heat or
differences in temperature.

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And that matters in this episode because
that's what we're going to be focusing on.

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climate change can feel more about

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weather news.

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And a lot of people don't realize that
climate change is ocean change,

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And when you have climate, it's kind of
out of your hands when

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you talk about climate change.

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it's it's big, it's distant, it's it's
hard to kind of get your head around.

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But it gets real when you start tracing a
straight line from warmer waters

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to a specific whale in a specific rope.

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And and the episode today traces that
line.

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then it's gonna show you what one
coastline did about it.

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Now, I've covered fisheries and whales on
the show for years.

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And this is one of those rare stories
where fishermen,

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scientists, and conservation groups ended
up building that that fix together.

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Lunch feeding whales can't graze on
scattered food.

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They need the dense swarms of krill or
tight schools of small fish like anchovy.

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Off California, that food usually sits
along a wide band of cold,

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nutrient-rich waters, fed by upwelling,

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which is deep water rising to the surface.

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When that band shifts or shrinks,

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that the whales will follow it.

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They shift with it. They have no choice.

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A whale that stays put in an empty water
will starve.

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Now, wherever the food goes, the whales
go.

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between 2014 and 2016, a marine heat wave
spread across the Northeast Pacific.

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surface water off the West Coast food-rich
zone into a narrow strip.

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~

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right along the coast. Scientists call
that habitat compression.

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and Jared Santora, a NOAA and UC Santa
Cruz researcher who led the study

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on what happened next, put it predators
that are normally spread

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out offshore are all moved in shore
because that's where the food was.

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Humpback whales switched from eating krill
to eating anchovy and anchovy were close

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to shore.

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So close to shore is where the Dungeness
Crab Fishery works.

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Each crab trap sits on the bottom,

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It ties to a rope that runs up to a buoy
at the surface.

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Thousands of these traps means thousands
of vertical ropes hanging through exactly

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the water the whales had just moved into.

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And they can't see these ropes,

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these whales. They can't move out of the
way because there's so many

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of them and They're narrow and they're
almost transparent to them.

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And there was a second blow. warm water
fed a massive bloom of toxic algae,

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which made crabs unsafe to eat.

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The crab season was delayed until late
March 2016.

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So the busiest stretch of crab fishing
landed in spring,

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right when the humpbacks arrived to feed.

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So the before the heat wave, about 10
whales a year were confirmed entangled

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off the west coast. In 2015, there were

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53

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And in twenty sixteen there were fifty
five.

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Nobody in that story did anything new or
reckless.

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It's just the ocean moved, the whales,

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and the ropes were just already there as
part of what they do.

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It's very similar to what happened in the
Gulf of St.

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Lawrence with the North Atlantic right
whale when the whales moved up into

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the Gulf of St. Lawrence. And that's what
makes this a climate story.

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normal fishing became dangerous because
the map underneath it changed.

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The whales started to move to find their
food.

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So what do you do when the danger moves
around every year?

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California wanted to find that answer.

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They set up a working group of crab
fishermen,

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state managers, scientists, and
conservation.

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You know, they built a system called the
Risk Assessment and Mitigation Program

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or RAM.

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it watches whale sightings, ocean
conditions,

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and entanglement reports and lets the
state shorten the season,

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close zones, or limit the fishing depth
when the risk climbs.

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Now those closures protect whales but they
also cause crabbers months of fishing.

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So spring closures became common and
unfortunately the fleet felt it.

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but what if you can keep fishing and take
the rope out of the water?

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This led to something that is pretty much
used all around the world now.

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And it's it's called pop-up gear.

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Now I want you to imagine a crab trap
sitting on the seafloor with no rope going
up,

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Its line and buoy are packed down on the
bottom with it.

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And when the fisherman comes back to grab
the trap,

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they send a signal from the boat.

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That trap releases its buoy and the line
floats up,

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and the trap gets hauled in.

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like the any like any other trap.

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And that's pop-up gear. Sometimes called
ropeless or on demand gear.

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between halls, there's nothing hanging in
the water for a whale to swim into.

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So it can't get caught in its fins.

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Well these whales will will swim around
and if they get caught in the line

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it goes into their pectoral fins right
where it meets their body.

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That starts to dig into them and they're
not only are they dragging

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the the crab traps so they disappear and
it slows down the whale

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But it also cuts into the whale.

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They can get infections. They can die from
those infections.

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So with these ropeless traps, that doesn't
happen and in the spring of 2025,

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California crabbers tested it during the
season when traditional gear

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was shut down to protect the whales.

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12 crabbers set 1,163 strings of pop-up
traps,

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and hauled more than 25,000 traps.

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the gear.

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Came up on a signal 98% of the time,

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and only 0.2% of the gear was lost.

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And the traps landed more than 217,000
pounds of crab,

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worth about $1.4 million during the months
they would normally have sat at the dock.

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Just before Christmas 2025, the California
Department of Fish and Wildlife made

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it official. Pop-up gear was approved for
commercial dungen fishing during spring

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closures from April 1st to July 15th.

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Weeks later, when the state closed parts
of the central coast

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to traditional traps because of whales,

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Crabbers in those zones could keep fishing
with the pop-up gear.

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and the department's director,

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Megan Hurdle, said pop-up fishing gear
will allow one of California's most iconic

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fisheries to continue. Dungeon's crab will
still be brought to market while whales

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and sea turtles are protected from
entanglement.

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One commercial crabber, Brad Little,

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called it excellent news for California's
commercial crab fishery.

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Now, these whales remain protected,

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crabbers, continue working, and the crab
gets put on the table.

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Nobody had to lose. Because the thing is,

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is like the ocean keeps moving.

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In 2024, entanglements jumped again.

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31 humpbacks confirmed off the West Coast,

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double the year before.

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Nine of those were near Monterey in
September and October,

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linked once again to whales crowding
inshore after dense prey moved.

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Pop-up gear is new, so it costs money to
switch.

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And it's a significant investment for a
lot of fishers.

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And it only covers part of the season so
far.

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So plenty of rope is still in the water.

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And that's why people were so important as
part of an early warning system

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on the water. So if you see a whale
tangled in rope or gear,

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report it right away to your local
stranding or entanglement hotline

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and stay with it at a safe distance if you
can.

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Never try to cut or free yourself.

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There are people, unfortunately,

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who have passed away trying to rescue
whales.

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And you've seen probably people jump on
whales to try and rescue it.

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These whales dive down and you're hooked
on that line and you can't get off.

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You're going down with it. You cannot go
to a heartbeat of two beats per minute,

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and you'll end up passing away as well,

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which we don't want to see. So be safe,

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keep your distance, try and follow as far
as you can and give

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the entanglement networks as much
information as you can.

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And also look up your local hotline now
and save it into your phone before

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you head out on the water.

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And the numbers for the US and Canada will
be in the show notes.

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Now Nintango whale is still diving,

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It's still trying to feed. It's burning
oxygen and energy it can't spare.

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So trained, so trained teams can free it.

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They just need to know where it is.

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on spring morning off the central
California coast,

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you can see humpbacks lunging through
schools of anchovies.

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there could be a crab boat working nearby,

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and on the surface, no buoys, no ropes,

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just a signal sent, a buoy popping up And
a trap coming home full.

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The food will keep moving, with clear
water,

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the whales can follow it safely.

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And that's important to make sure that
these whales continue to

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feed.

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It's important for these fishers to
continue to fish.

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And it's important that we all live
harmoniously and change with the times

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and adapt with the times. this California
example was a great example

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of showing how things change and how
people can continue to innovate

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and adapt to these different situations.

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Climate change is there's nothing really
we can do about it individually,

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other than governments can continue to try
and reduce fossil fuel.

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emissions probably faster than they
should,

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but we can still do something here and
adapt to these types of of situations.

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And that's it for today's episode.

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If you have a question or comment about
this episode,

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please let me know. if you're listening to
this on Spotify,

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you can comment on the episode in the
comment section.

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If you're listening to this on your
regular podcast app,

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you can connect with me on my socials and

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My my socials are in the show notes.

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I'll be starting a YouTube channel for
this soon.

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So don't forget to check out YouTube,

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subscribe, and you can see some of the
graphics that we put up.

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Same information that you're listening to
now,

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but it's just more visual. So I want to
thank you so much for joining

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me on today's episode of the How to
Protect the Ocean Podcast.

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I'm your host, Andrew Lewin. Have a great
day.

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Next time we're gonna be talking about the
biggest hazard in a whale's path

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and the simple change that cuts the danger
in half.

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Enjoy your day. We'll talk to you
tomorrow.

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And happy conservation.