European green crab management: 2026 field season updates
WDFW and more than 50 co‑managers, tribes, and partners continued intensive trapping and monitoring across coastal and inland waters throughout the spring and summer of 2026.
Washington state agencies, tribes, and partners removed more than 2 million European green crabs in 2026 and have expanded coordinated trapping, monitoring, and management to protect the state’s marine ecosystems, shellfish resources, and treaty protected fisheries.
Since the field season began early this year, this European green crab control effort also expanded collaborative management in key areas, and strengthened coordination among state, tribal, federal, local, and community partners to protect nearshore and estuary habitats, eelgrass, native shellfish, tribal treaty rights, and cultural, economic, and recreational resources.
This work is making a difference, but the threat from this harmful aquatic invasive species remains substantial. Continued rapid response, trapping, monitoring, research, and coordination — and state and federal funding resources — are essential for protecting Washington’s marine ecosystems and shellfish industry valued at $400 million annually.
Annual report and field season updates now available
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and more than 50 co‑managers, tribes, and partners continued intensive trapping and monitoring across coastal and inland waters throughout the spring and summer of 2026.
Partners’ trapping efforts are strategic, efficient, and well-coordinated thanks to the dedication of individual groups and support from Regional Coordination Groups. Together, we removed more than 2 million European green crabs (also known as green crabs or EGC), kept pressure on established populations, and refined early detection and rapid response in areas at risk.
Catch updates by area are available on WDFW’s European Green Crab Hub, which is used for data collection and reporting.
For more detail, including management and scientific analysis, maps, and site‑by‑site details, refer to WDFW’s Fiscal Year 2026 Annual European Green Crab Report (July 1, 2025–June 30, 2026).
The increase in green crab catch from previous years reflects several factors, including increased trapping efforts and efficiency, additional resources supporting management, increased recruitment following a warmer-than-usual winter, and continued growth of established populations in some areas.
Removing green crabs is important for more than reducing the number of crabs in the water. Female green crabs can produce hundreds of thousands of eggs in a clutch. Because sex ratios and reproductive output vary, the exact number of future larvae prevented by trapping cannot be calculated. However, WDFW estimates that removal of more than 2 million green crabs in 2026 represents the potential prevention of tens to hundreds of billions of green crab larvae from entering Washington’s waters. At the same time, catch numbers tell only part of the story. In some areas, catch remained stable or declined, which may indicate that sustained local management is reducing abundance or limiting population growth.
Green crabs have not been detected in several portions of Washington, including the South Central Puget Sound and South Puget Sound management areas. Continued monitoring will be needed to determine whether these trends persist.
While the 2026 season has brought higher catches in several areas, we continue to see that sustained trapping pressure works — especially when applied consistently — to slow the spread of green crabs and control their numbers.
With continued momentum and growing state and federal support, Washington is well-positioned to keep European green crab numbers below damaging levels and protect aquaculture, treaty-protected resources, marine ecosystems, and the broader coastal economy.
New detections reinforce the value of early detection
So far in 2026, there have been no new detections at the management area level. However, new localized detections occurred within several areas where green crabs were previously documented, including parts of North Puget Sound, North Central Puget Sound, Hood Canal, and the Eastern Strait & Admiralty Inlet.
North and North Central Puget Sound
This year’s field work has continued to refine priorities in northern Puget Sound.
In North Central Puget Sound, the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 annual report documented 22 green crabs removed during 6,320 trap checks. Although abundance remains limited, the known distribution of this invasive species expanded into two coordination areas: Possession Sound and Skagit Bay. Five green crabs were detected at Similk Beach and Turners Bay east of Deception Pass, and another was detected at Priest Point in Possession Sound.
More recent field-season work has also resulted in detections in Port Susan and on Lopez and San Juan islands.
At Warm Beach in Port Susan, a public report submitted through the WA Invasives reporting tool prompted a rapid assessment involving WDFW, the Stillaguamish Tribe of Indians, and The Tulalip Tribes. The team conducted 184 trap sets and checks and confirmed an adult male European green crab. Follow up efforts by partners have found three additional sites in Port Susan coordination area with green crabs present.
The San Juan Islands have also had new detections this year. On Lopez Island, WDFW conducted its first broad trapping effort outside the Washington Sea Grant (WSG) Crab Team monitoring sites. This effort resulted in detections at Bayshore Road Lagoon and East Mud Bay. Additional detections include two sites on Orcas Island; one report was submitted to the WSG and WSU Extension Molt Search program, and the other crab was removed during WDFW trapping efforts. There is also one new site on San Juan Island.
These individual detections may seem small compared with the millions of crabs removed from Washington waters. They are important precisely because the numbers remain small. Each confirmed crab provides information that helps managers focus future monitoring and trapping where it can have the greatest benefit.
These detections may represent newly established populations or small populations that have been present but have escaped detection. Either way, they expand the known distribution of green crab and reinforce why early detection and rapid response matter.
When green crab numbers are low, managers have a better opportunity to identify where they are present, focus trapping efforts, and prevent populations from becoming larger and more difficult to manage.
Why it matters for our environment and economy
European green crabs are a harmful invasive species that can impact bivalves such as native littleneck clams, smaller shore crab species, and important nearshore habitats such as estuaries. In areas where populations become large and established, green crabs have been associated with impacts to shellfish and native crab populations, including through predation and competition. They can also disturb eelgrass and marsh habitats through burrowing and other activities. Washington has significant economic, cultural, and ecological resources at stake.
Washington’s shellfish industry generates nearly $400 million annually from aquaculture, wild harvests, and Dungeness crab fisheries combined, making it one of the state’s most economically significant marine sectors. Aquaculture alone accounts for about $243 million annually, and high value wild fisheries such as geoduck and Dungeness crab add tens of millions more.
Research shows that an unchecked green crab invasion could threaten up to 74 percent of annual commercial clam, oyster, and mussel harvests in Puget Sound, representing more than half of industry revenue. East Coast fisheries already experience an estimated $22.6 million in annual losses from green crab predation, underscoring the very real economic consequences.
For Washington, the concern extends beyond economics. Treaty-protected fisheries, tribal resources, recreational opportunities, and nearshore habitats all depend on healthy coastal ecosystems. The goal is not simply to catch and remove as many invasive crabs as possible in a single season. As outlined in Washington’s Green Crab Incident Command System objectives, it is to reduce the ecological and economic impacts of green crab over the long term and prevent populations from becoming established or expanding where they can cause greater harm.
As Sarah Grossman, a researcher working with the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community said in a recent article in The New York Times, “Our goals are really to just keep the populations of green crab at biologically insignificant levels.”
WDFW and the many co-managers, tribes, and partners are also making progress towards post-emergency transition to long-term green crab management, utilizing the 2025–2031 Management Plan for Washington.
Partnerships make the response possible
European green crab management in Washington is a collaborative effort. WDFW works with tribal governments, co-managers, state and federal agencies, shellfish growers, local governments and conservation districts, researchers and other partners. Regional Coordination Groups and the European Green Crab Multi-Agency Coordination (MAC) Group provide a structure for sharing information, assessing conditions and adapting priorities as conditions change.
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This approach allows local knowledge and expertise to inform statewide management while helping partners coordinate limited resources across a very large coastline.
Working with shellfish growers
In Willapa Bay, WDFW and WSG met with oyster growers to discuss observations from the field, identify emerging hotspots, and improve trap placement.
Grower input is helping partners identify ways to reduce overlap between trapping efforts, improve guidance on trap spacing and bait, and address permitting and logistical challenges that can limit the amount of time traps remain in the water.
These practical improvements matter. Green crab management is labor intensive, and effective control depends on sustained effort in the places where green crabs are most abundant.
Building tribal and local capacity
WDFW and Washington Sea Grant also continued trapper training with tribal and community partners. In 2026, WDFW and WSG have partnered to host three trapper trainings, training 29 different technical staff from 10 different organizations.
During a refresher training near Ocean Shores in June, participants captured three green crabs within 20 minutes of placing a trap and hand-captured five more along a section of riprap. Training helps partners build the knowledge and practical skills needed to identify, monitor and remove green crab in their own communities. The long-term response depends on this network of increased capacity.
Sustained collaboration and strategic investment are helping Washington move toward the long‑term goal: reducing European green crab impacts so they are not economically or ecologically harmful.
Funding and coordination
Federal support is growing — but more help is needed
Federal funding made an important contribution to Washington’s green crab response during 2026.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) awarded WDFW $1.5 million to support implementation of the European Green Crab 2025–2031 Management Plan. Demand substantially exceeded the available funding: WDFW received more than $5 million in applications from co-managers, tribes and other partners for the first $1.5 million award. NOAA subsequently awarded another $1.5 million for 2027.
The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs also made $2 million available for tribal green crab management activities through its Invasive Species Program. Tribal capacity is a critical component of Washington’s long-term strategy, and federal resources can help support the monitoring, trapping, research, and response work carried out by tribal governments.
These investments are an important start, but they do not replace the need for sustained state, tribal, local, and federal support.
For more information on federal funding, refer to WDFW’s April 2026 joint letter to Congress on strengthening federal support.
State investment remains essential
Washington’s response has also been built on sustained state investment. The Legislature provided approximately $12.2 million for green crab management during the 2023–25 biennium (or $6.1 million per year) and continued that level of ongoing support in the current 2025–27 biennium budget, reaffirmed during the 2026 supplemental legislative session. The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) also received $2.5 million for green crab management on state-owned aquatic lands during the 2025–27 biennium.
Currently, approximately $9 million of WDFW’s biennial funding is passed through to co‑managers, tribes, conservation districts, shellfish growers associations, and other partners.
That distributed model is a key strength of Washington’s response. It puts resources in the hands of people and organizations doing the work on the water and in coastal communities across the state for trapping, monitoring, and control.
More information on DNR’s 2027–2029 state funding request is available in WDFW’s September 2026 support letter.
“We’ve made significant progress, but the threat remains substantial,” said Justin Bush, manager of WDFW’s Aquatic Invasive Species Division and European Green Crab Incident Commander.
“Treaty-protected fisheries, shellfish resources, eelgrass and other critical nearshore habitats are at risk. We’re working to prevent green crab from expanding into new areas and to reduce the impacts of populations that are already established. Sustaining this work is essential to protecting Washington’s natural resources for the future.”
The objective is to avoid the impacts seen in other regions by keeping populations from becoming established where possible and reducing the impacts of populations that are already present.
Four years into the emergency
Four years into Washington’s European green crab emergency, the response is more coordinated, strategically focused, and better resourced than it was when the emergency began in early 2022.
There has been meaningful progress: millions of crabs removed, new monitoring and trapping capacity established, research priorities strengthened, public engagement expanded, and federal support increased. The state’s long-term management plan provides a framework for building on that progress.
But the work is far from complete. Established populations continue to expand in some areas, new recruitment remains possible, and localized detections continue to occur. Effective management requires sustained effort over time.
The goal is straightforward: protect Washington’s shellfish resources, treaty-protected fisheries, tribal and recreational opportunities, and the nearshore habitats that support them by reducing European green crab impacts to levels that are not economically or ecologically harmful.
Achieving that goal will require continued collaboration and sustained investment from Washington, tribal governments, local partners, and the federal government.
For more information about the co-managers, tribes, and partners involved in green crab trapping or management, please visit the European Green Crab Hub.
If you find a suspected European green crab
Don’t be fooled by the name — European green crabs are not always green. They can be green, red, orange, brown, or yellow. To identify them, look for five spines or “teeth” on each side of the shell.
People are often surprised by how small these crabs are — the average green crab WDFW captures is around two inches across the shell. They can get up to four inches wide, much smaller than mature Dungeness or red rock crabs. Resources and tips for green crab identification are available on WDFW’s webpage and on the European Green Crab Hub.
If you find a suspected European green crab or its shell in Washington, take photos and report it as soon as possible through WDFW’s European green crab reporting webpage or the WA Invasives mobile app.
Do not assume every small crab is a European green crab. Several native Washington crab species can look similar, and accurate identification is important. WDFW offers a printable Common Crabs of Washington identification guide showing both native and invasive species.
For more information about European green crab identification, regulations, reporting and management, visit WDFW’s European green crab species webpage.
To contact WDFW’s European green crab management and field team, email ais@dfw.wa.gov with a description of the request and location. Staff will connect you with the appropriate team or partner.
