It looks like there will be Dungeness crab for Thanksgiving.

The California Department of Public Health said that the local commercial Dungeness crab season is expected to begin as scheduled on Wednesday for the San Francisco fishing fleet and the region south of the Mendocino County line.

As in recent years, there was some concern about whether that would happen when preseason tests of Dungeness crabs caught in far Northern California — especially near Fort Bragg and Crescent City (Del Norte County) — showed dangerous levels of domoic acid, the naturally occurring toxin that delayed the 2015-16 and 2016-17 commercial crab seasons.

“Currently, the California Department of Public Health continues to sample from the two impacted areas in Northern California that have recent advisories,” the CDPH said in a statement on Nov. 9. “Other areas of the commercial fishery are not impacted, so the first day of the commercial Dungeness crab season south of Mendocino county should open on November 15 as scheduled, per the California Department of Fish and Wildlife regulations.”

When the recreational fishing season began Saturday, the health department issued advisories that sport fishermen remove the guts or viscera from crab in two areas near Fort Bragg and Crescent City. However, crabs from waters south of the Mendocino County line haven’t raised any public safety concerns, according to CDPH tests since September.

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“We did the testing so we knew it was clean. We’ve been clean for months here,” said Larry Collins of the San Francisco Community Fishing Association, speaking from San Francisco. “They’ve got a couple spots up north they’ve got to clean up. Here we’re good to go.”

While the Department of Public Health does not have the authority to open or close commercial crab fisheries, it does issue advisories when there are potential public health issues, and then works with the state’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment and the Department of Fish and Wildlife to help them make the determination whether fisheries should be closed. Last year, part of the commercial fishery didn’t open at the normal time because there were still some signs of domoic acid in sample crabs.

The next step is for the local fishing fleet and crab processors to decide on a price, which will probably happen right before boats go out Tuesday night, said Collins.

“We’re excited,” he said. “Hopefully, we’ll work out the price thing, and everyone gets to have crab for Thanksgiving.”

Back to Gallery Commercial Dungeness crab season scheduled to start on... 4 1 of 4 Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle 2 of 4 Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle 2016 3 of 4 Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle 4 of 4 Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle





