Dungeness crab is the most prized delicacy in the bay. Last May, a fire ravaged the hub of San Francisco’s beloved crabbing community, Pier 45.

John Barnett lost a lifetime worth of equipment  along with about three dozen other local fishermen, 

“Fifteen years worth of equipment stored up and it was all gone,” Barnett says. 

“It represented not just a lot of money, but a lot of work. That was pretty devastating for some of us.“

Dungeness crab season pays about 60% of most fisherman’s earnings for the year. In past years, crabbers often spent the summer months chartering boat tours to make up the rest. This year the pandemic made that almost impossible. 

The lost tourism money, debt for new equipment, and a slow season isn’t what many at Pier 45 were hoping for, but this isn’t their first run in with adversity. They’re in this for the long haul.

Barnett says, “if you own a fishing boat, and you're a fisherman, commercial fisherman, it's not like, you can say, well, I'll take a year or two off and do some other job. You gotta tough it out.”