Now, an unlikely coalition is stepping up to do something about it. Chris Larsen, the Ripple co-founder and San Francisco crypto billionaire, has joined forces with Congressmen Sam Liccardo and Ro Khanna to push California to overhaul how it sets and ends commercial crab fishing seasons.

The core issue is real: California's current system for managing crab seasons is rigid and reactive, often shutting down or delaying fishing based on whale entanglement risk assessments that critics say are slow, overly cautious, and disconnected from conditions on the water. The result? Local crabbers lose prime selling weeks, consumers pay more, and the iconic Fisherman's Wharf tradition takes a hit — all while imported crab fills the gap.

To be clear, nobody serious is arguing we should ignore whale safety. But there's a difference between smart environmental stewardship and a bureaucratic process that can't adapt in real time. When the regulations are so clunky that they consistently fail both the fishing industry and consumers, it's worth asking whether the system is actually protecting anyone — or just protecting itself.

What's interesting here is the coalition itself. A tech billionaire, a moderate Democrat, and a progressive congressman don't usually end up on the same page. But fisheries policy is one of those rare issues where the math is simple enough to cut through ideology: the current rules cost local businesses money, cost consumers access to a beloved product, and don't demonstrably improve outcomes for whales compared to a more flexible approach.

Whether this push actually results in legislative change remains to be seen — Sacramento isn't exactly famous for streamlining anything. But if a crypto fortune is what it takes to get Dungeness crab back on Thanksgiving tables at a reasonable price, we'll take the win.