California to Delay Dungeness Crab Seasons; Agency has Monitoring Procedure to Reopen
SEAFOODNEWS.COM by John Sackton November 5, 2015
The California Dept. of Fish and Game will hold an emergency meeting this morning at which they are certain to delay the recreational Dungeness Crab season that was scheduled to open November 7th. Although today's meeting is solely to decide on the recreational fishery, it is highly likely that they will vote at a later date to delay the start of the commercial season as well, as all the same factors remain in place, and a commerical fishery closure was also recommended by the California EPA.
The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, which is part of the California Environmental Protection Agency, has released a series of test results for domoic acid concentrations in Dungeness crab viscera at ports along the coast.
In samples taken between October 20th and October 31st, at ports from Crescent City in the north to Monterey, South of San Francisco, 50% to 100% of the samples tested exceeded the FDA action level of 30 parts per million.
The only exception was Ft. Bragg, where 6 samples showed no levels of domoic acid ...
To Read Full Story Login Below.