In recent years, whale entanglements have grown in number in the southern portion of the Dungeness crab fishery, and earlier in the season. The Government of California plans to implement closures as a way to mitigate the problem.
See: https://wildlife.ca.gov/Fishing/Ocean/Regulations/Inseason
Featured Bycatch Species
Data from the Northwest Atlantic suggests that the thorny skate began declining in the early 1980s and accelerated in the early 1990s (Burgess et al 2005).