Dungeness season likely is delayed

Another year, another delay to Northern California’s vaunted Dungeness crab season.

But this time it’s fishing lines, not a toxin, at issue.

California Department of Fish and Wildlife officials have announced that the commercial Dungeness fishing season will likely be delayed until Dec. 15 to decrease the chances of whales currently off the coast getting ensnarled by fishing lines.

The season already had been delayed a week, from the traditional Nov. 15 start to today.

Responding to concerns from the commercial crab f leet, CDFW Director Charlton H. Bonham announced late Wednesday that he intends to further delay the beginning of the crab fishery south of the Mendocino/Sonoma county line because of a “significant risk of marine life entanglement.”

According to the agency, an aerial survey of the Greater Farallones and Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuaries conducted Monday, found concentrations of whales foraging in depths between 30 and 50 fathoms off Point Reyes and Half Moon Bay. A followup flight will be scheduled before Dec. 15.

Don’t despair over the postponement’s effect on that Thanksgiving crab feast, though. Some stores had braced for the possibility of a delay in NorCal supplies.

“We’ve got the crab in. But it’s not local; it’s from Washington state,” said Eric Furtado of the seafood department at Draeger’s Blackhawk store in Danville. “They’re nice big ones, too, about 2 pounds.”

The recreational crab season, on the other hand, is up and running, though it came with a warning from state health officials: Don’t eat any internal organs or guts of the crab caught in certain coastal areas because of the possible the presence of domoic acid. This byproduct of algal blooms produces a naturally occurring poison that could cause vomiting or diarrhea when eaten. According to state health officials, cooking the crabs neither destroys the toxin nor decreases the level of toxicity.

The dreaded domoic acid destroyed Northern California’s 2015-2016 commercial season and created delays in other years. Last November, recreational crabbers had to postpone their fishing, but the 2018 commercial season began without a hitch.