Crab lovers — keep waiting. State officials decided Wednesday to keep the commercial Dungeness season shuttered until more of the coast is clear of a deadly neurotoxin that stubbornly continues to be found in some of the spindly sea creatures.
The late afternoon announcement by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife dealt a crippling blow to the commercial Dungeness crab industry, which has been locked out of fishing for the tasty table favorites since the season’s planned opening date in mid-November was canceled by poison fears.
Fish and Wildlife Director Charlton Bonham said the decision to close the season indefinitely was difficult, but that fears of customers being killed or injured by domoic acid outweighed the economic damage to the crabbing industry. If state health officials determine that the toxin danger has sufficiently ended, he said, the closure will be reconsidered statewide, or at least south of the Mendocino-Sonoma county line.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: SF Gate