So is the limit 10 or 6 this year in San Mateo county?  i read its 10 above mendocino county and 6 below ..?

Isn't  that just a party boat reg?  brb checking.

Yup.

(3) Limit: Ten, except in Sonoma, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, and Monterey counties, when fishing aboard a commercial passenger fishing vessel required to be licensed pursu- ant to Section 7881 and/or Section 7920, Fish and Game Code, the limit is six.

…

(7) Minimum size: Five and three-quarter inches measured by the shortest distance through the body from edge of shell to edge of shell directly in front of and excluding the points (lateral spines); except in Sonoma, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, and Monterey counties, when fishing aboard a commercial passenger fishing vessel required to be licensed pursuant to Section 7881 and/or Section 7920, Fish and Game Code, the minimum size is six inches measured by the shortest distance through the body from edge of shell to edge of shell directly in front of and excluding the points (lateral spines).

That doesn't really seem fair.

I don't see anything in the regs that prohibits the take of female crabs

As most wives gladly point out fish / crab cleaning is a man's job. We clean they cook. Yummy crab on the table always get WAF points
If there was a concern about the overharvesting of female crabs the DFG would regulate just like they regulate everything else within an inch of reason

Never met anyone, until now, who has said, this crab was more bitter tasting than the last one. It must be female.

Is catching a female salmon unethical? Don't they have hundreds or thousands of eggs. Don't we catch them when they are most vulnerable, when they are gathering outside or in rivers specifically to spawn? Is that ethical? You can often tell when a fish is loaded with eggs. You don't keep them? No Sturgeon caviar? In many or most cases the larger fish and those with which we win tournaments and big side bets with are female. Is this unethical ?  My understanding is that the larger Lings over 24-26" are female. We gladly keep those. This is unethical ?

Is catching a female salmon unethical? Don't they have hundreds or thousands of eggs.

Salmon spawn only once in there life; then die. Crabs can spawn multiple times in there life...

Sturgeon have a "slot limit" which allows them to also spawn more than once...

When was the last time you saw a female crab for sale at any place? Then ask yourself, why?

Legal != ethical.  Everyone, to whatever extent, is driven by their own code of ethics.  We tend to surround ourselves with those who share similar ethical beliefs. 

So yes, there are ethics involved when we discuss keeping female crab.  I will not keep one, and I won't really like it if you do keep one without even some consideration.  Consideration, such as preparing and eating the eggs.  That sounds like something I'd like to try.

Just like I don't like the idea of keeping china rockfish.  They are old, slow to mature, and not terribly plentiful.

There are other things that we have to do for legal reasons that are, in my opinion, unethical.  I had to release a gill hooked underling last time I went fishing that was not likely to survive the encounter.  That seems unethical to me, but legally I had to do it.

Just because something is legal doesn't make it right.  Just because something is illegal doesn't make it wrong.

"There's what's right, and there's what's right, and never the twain shall meet."

-H.I. McDunnough