Crabber/Towboat Lane Agreement

The towlanes were updated as of March 2025. Please download updated Data Files below.

Towlane Pt#         Old LAT         Old LONG         New LAT         New LONG

C 8-9                 41° 41.250      124° 15.900       41° 39.664        124° 14.526

C 8-10               41° 43.600      124° 13.100       41° 43.475        124° 12.537

C 8-11               41° 42.500      124° 11.100       41° 42.570         124° 10.828

C 8-13               41° 39.200      124° 14.750      41° 35.744         124° 15.105

Meetings

Meetings are held twice per year on the 2nd Friday in November and March in Astoria, OR.

Next meeting for Crabber-Towboat Lane Agreement and West Coast Obstructions and Navigation Update (WCONU) will be Friday, November 7, 2025.

Subscribe to the Crabber/Towboat Lane Mailing List

Current Towlanes (Last Updated March 2025)

Changes made to the most recent charts (PDF)

Data Files

For your convenience, Washington Sea Grant has made available electronic data files for commercial crabber and towboat towlane charts.

Please note:

  1. The following links provide access to data files; depending on application, they will be binary (i.e., .zip) or text (i.e., .txt). You must download the appropriate file (Maptech, Nobeltec, WindPlot, etc.), decompress if it is a .zip format, and import it into the appropriate program.
  2. Most contemporary operating systems come with file decompression applications, enabling the downloaded file to either open automatically or open upon double-clicking it. You can also obtain a version of the program required to decompress these files online (some are free; others are fee-based).
  3. Please download the data loading instructions here.
Software File
P-Sea WindPlot II Download  (23 Kb)
Rose Point Coastal Explorer Download (244 Kb)
Nobeltec Visual Navigation Suite Download (236 Kb)
Maptech Offshore Navigator (2019) Download   (35 Kb)
OLEX Download  (31 Kb)
GLOBE Download   (17 Kb)
TimeZero Legacy Data

TimeZero Exchange

 Download  (28 Kb)

Download (25 Kb)
KML (2019) Download   (8 Kb)
Towlane Shapefiles (2019) Download (15 Kb)
Towlane Interactive Map (2021) Download  (1 Mb)

 

List of coordinates for summer and year-round lanes

Summer towlane coordinates (XLSX)

Year-round towlane coordinates (XLSX)

Advisory towlane coordinates (XLSX)

If you require the towlane chart data in printed form, please contact Jenna Keeton, Fisheries Specialist, 206.543.7009, keetonj@uw.edu. If you have trouble accessing the data, please contact Kayj Morrill-McClure, IT Lead, 206.685.0171, kayjmmc@uw.edu.

†DISCLAIMER

No Guarantees: While Washington Sea Grant has made every attempt to verify that the information provided was accurate at the time the files were created, no express guarantees are made of the information herein. No contracts, implied or otherwise, are made through providing this information. For any questions about this information, please contact Jenna Keeton, keetonj@uw.edu or 206.543.7009.

Use At Own Risk: Use this material at your own risk. Washington Sea Grant is not responsible for the consequences arising from the use of this information. The information is provided “AS IS”, and Washington Sea Grant makes no claims regarding its quality, usefulness or accuracy.

 

Available Now

Data files are now available on a USB thumb drive (free of charge). You can also download the files directly using the links above. To obtain a USB thumb drive, please contact Jenna Keeton (206.543.7009). Please be sure to download the data loading instructions (text file).

 

Meeting Notes

Click Here to Explore an Interactive Map of vessel traffic in the towlanes

Created by Leslie Nguyen, School of Marine and Environmental Affairs – University of Washington, 7/2022

If you have trouble accessing the data, please contact Kayj Morrill-McClure, IT Lead, 206.685.0171, kayjmmc@uw.edu.