Eight additional signs warning against potentially cancer-causing crabs in Newark Bay have been delivered to Bayonne, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection announced today.

The signs -- half of which are written in Spanish -- will join the existing five signs in Stephen R. Gregg/ Bayonne County Park in advising people against catching and eating dioxin-contaminated blue claw crabs in the Newark Bay.

Last week, The Jersey Journal reported on the few number of no-crabbing signs in Bayonne's parks. Only five signs were found in one of four parks along Newark Bay. Out of those five, one was at the northern end of Bayonne Park and four were at its southern end.

At Richard A. Rutkowski Park, an additional "No Fishing or Crabbing" sign was posted at the entrance to the park, but with no warning regarding the risk of cancer. No signs could be found in either Veterans Park or City Park.

Stephen R. Gregg/ Bayonne County Park is run by Hudson County, while the other three parks along Newark Bay are municipal parks.

The Lower Passaic River and Newark Bay are the only waterways in the state that have an outright ban on catching and eating crabs, according to the DEP. The bodies of water are highly polluted with toxic material from the production of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.

The DEP's ban has been in place since the mid-1980s, but without enough education, enforcement and signage, people have continued to go crabbing, The Jersey Journal and The Star-Ledger have previously reported.

Those caught in the act are subject to fines ranging between $100 to $3,000 for a first offense, according to the DEP.

Bayonne city spokesman Jeff Meyer said last week that the city isn't responsible for putting up signs in the parks along the water and that it is the responsibility of the DEP and the county.

However, Bayonne Third Ward councilman Gary La Pelusa, Sr. told The Jersey Journal this morning that he will be addressing the lack of signage in the municipal parks.

"I will be urging public works department and parks department to address the lack of signage in city parks close to the water," he said. "I am also sending correspondence to the county parks department asking them to provide adequate signage for the dangers of eating fish and crabs from the bay."

On the topic of the lack of signage, director of Bayonne Municipal Services Rob Wondolowski told The Jersey Journal late last week that the city will be "creating a policy to address (the) safety of residents."

"The city is in contact with (non-profit) Hackensack Riverkeeper, who is going to provide us with literature used to create signage," he said.

Jonathan Lin may be reached at jlin@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @jlin_jj. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.