Crab Fishery Closures Continue

December 18, 2015

Results from the lastest crab tests conducted by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) continue to show that some areas of the Santa Barbara fishing grounds contain crab that exceed the alert level (greater than 30 parts per million) for the neurotoxin, domoic acid. At this time, the commercial and recreational fisheries for Dungeness crab and rock crab north of the Santa Barbara-Ventura county line remain closed, as well as state waters around Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, and San Miguel islands in the northern Channel Islands archipelago.

This week, crab samples were collected from the Santa Barbara and Crescent City area. Results from samples in these port areas are expected to be completed over the next few weeks. The reopening of specified closed areas will not occur until the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment and the CDPH issue recommendations that indicate crab in a particular area is safe to eat.

The latest domoic acid crab test results will continue to be posted on the CDPH website at http://www.cdph.ca.gov/HealthInfo/Pages/fdbDomoicAcidInfo.aspx.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife's Dungeness crab and rock crab information hotline - (831) 649-2883 - will continue to provide callers with the status of the crab seasons as testing continues. The hotline is updated weekly by 1 p.m. on Wednesday, or as soon as new information becomes available.

The southern rock crab fishery has been happily operating for decades with DA levels far exceeding 30ppm. There has never been a single case of DA poisoning recorded from people consuming those crab.
At the stakeholders meeting Congress critters and resource managers agreed that they would see to it that the pace and scope of testing would be increased. It hasn't happened.
The longer this made up closure continues, the more I wonder if Julie has a part in it. We know for sure she is about to launch a full frontal attack on us using whale entanglement as an excuse to shut us down.