Oregon’s Dungeness crab fishing community came out in force Friday against proposed rule changes aimed at protecting humpback whales from becoming entangled in fishing gear.
The rules, proposed in a petition to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Commission that ultimately failed, were drafted by conservation groups after a high-profile entanglement on the Oregon coast in November.
The seven-member commission, which makes recommendations to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, denied the petition after an eight-hour meeting Friday in Springfield that was packed by members of the crabbing community…