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On Assignment - Wall Street Journal - Crabbers struggle with late starting season

The day after Christmas in Newport, the docks sat full of idle boats, as crabbers from northern California to Washington waited for inspectors to give them the go-ahead to fill their holds with the meaty Dungeness crab, the jewel of Oregon's seafood industry. I joined Wall Street Journal reporter and old skool music junkie Joel Millman on a trip to the coast to report on the crab season. For the second straight year, the eight-month crabbing season is starting late, after inspectors determined that crabs along a stretch of Washington coastline needed more time to get to 'meat' size.  The gods of sunshine and of reporters that have to work on holidays took pity on us and we had some gorgeous weather and some very tasty seafood (I had clams, not crab).  See the slideshow online at the WSJ.com WSJ-CRABS-57 WSJ-CRABS-58 WSJ-CRABS-59 WSJ-CRABS-60 WSJ-CRABS-61 WSJ-CRABS-62 WSJ-CRABS-63 WSJ-CRABS-64 WSJ-CRABS-65 WSJ-CRABS-66