PRINCETON-BY-THE-SEA — With crab pots and ﻿equipment already piled high in their boats, commercial fishermen along much of the Northern California coast at long last are poised to set sail this week, launching the Dungeness crab season after state officials finally declared the iconic creatures safe to eat.

A nearly five-month delay was caused by hazardous levels of toxin in the tasty crustaceans. But if it’s determined that the crab are good enough for the market this late in the season, they could finally be ready for consumers by midweek.

“The guys are itching to go out,” said Devin Bunch, whose boat, the Cricket, is loaded with crab pots ready to sail. “We want to go fish,” Bunch said under sunny blue skies on a near-perfect California coastal morning in Princeton’s Pillar Point Harbor near Half Moon Bay.

What’s left of the crab season officially began on Saturday, but boats from Bodega Bay to Pillar Point aren’t moving until processors test crabs — not for toxins but for the quality of the meat — caught over the weekend and then set a price for them on Monday. The crab for testing was brought on Saturday to San Francisco by two boats, one from Half Moon Bay and one from San Francisco.

Most boats at Pillar Point are ready to go — filled with heavy circular crab pots, 30 to 44 inches in diameter and 12 inches high, that are dropped to the sea bottom and marked with buoys. Crab lured by bait find their way inside and can’t escape.

But some boats may not sail at all if their operators decide it’s not worth it to fish at the tail end of the season, which normally runs from November through June.

“A quality test so late in the season — never in history have we been in this position before,” said Jeanette Caito of Caito Fisheries, a processor that is testing the crab. “December, January, February, March — that’s when we harvest the crab.”

Larry Collins, president of the San Francisco Crab Boat Owners Association, said if a price agreement can be reached with processors, there should be “heavy crab coming over the dock” by Thursday. Collins on Friday was rigging his boat, the Autumn Gale, at San Francisco’s Pier 45.

Crab season was delayed by state officials because of high levels of domoic acid in the meat of crabs that were caught and tested in November. It is a naturally occurring toxin in crustaceans, fish and shellfish that can pose a significant risk to the public at elevated levels, state health officials say.

After a series of good test results, the state opened recreational crab fishing south of Point Reyes last month. Operators of the commercial fishing fleet’s roughly 500 boats decided to wait until all of the entire coast south of the Mendocino-Sonoma county line was declared safe for crab fishing. Crab still cannot be commercially fished north of the Mendocino-Sonoma line.

“We wanted to open the largest area for the confidence of consumers, to show that we’re not trying to sub-pick crab out of one area,” said Jim Anderson, a member of the Dungeness Crab Task Force and operator of the salmon and crab boat Allaine. “It’s always been about the public,” Anderson said.

Boat operators still face a big unknown: consumer confidence.

“We want everybody to know that crab is totally safe and ready for consumption,” said fisherman Bunch. “The public should really come down and enjoy it before the season closes.”

The fact that sport fishermen have been catching crab for several weeks should help. Reports are that they are big, with heavy carapaces — a sign that molting, when the shells become soft, hasn’t begun.

“The crab are extremely good,” said Bunch’s brother, Jake, whose boat, the Sadie K, was stocked with new crab pots. “Passing the quality test will be a slam dunk. I’ve seen them. I’ve eaten them.”

The toxin scare slammed the coastal economies dependent on crab and fish catches to keep their businesses thriving.

“It’s a huge deal for us, both for our local businesses, the restaurants and the fishing companies that rely on crab season for their businesses,” said Half Moon Bay Mayor Rick Kowalczyk. “A lot of people visit our community to buy fresh crab. They stay in our hotels, eat in our restaurants and enjoy the coast. And for the fishermen who fish for crab — that’s their livelihood.”

“Morale has been really low in the community,” said Katherine Nittler, associate general manager of the Half Moon Bay Brewing Co. “A lot of people had to get part-time jobs, and some had to move on.”

Nittler said she’s looking forward to the first day — or night — of crab fishing. “You see them out at night. I drive from Pacifica to work. At the beginning of the crab season, it’s almost like a city on the water. I’m sure they’ll be out there at night setting pots, getting traps laid and selling crab as soon as possible.”

A husky fisherman named Jim Burton paused from loading his boat at Pillar Point to talk about how hard the delayed season has been for fishermen, who depend on a full season to break even.

“It’s a mess this year,” said Burton, 56, of Pacifica. “I’m a third-generation fisherman, and I just want to go fish. My house payments, my boat payments are all five months behind. It’s sell the boat or fish.”

Adding to the difficulty is the opening of salmon season in May. Many boat operators fish for crab and salmon. Complicating things even more is the eventual onset of molting and mating.

“They mate, and they don’t take bait,” said Lori Cavanaugh, marina assistant at Spud Point Marina in Bodega Bay. “And when they molt, their shells are soft, and there is no meat in the crab. General thinking is if the quality is good, and the buyers are willing, they’ll have about a month to fish before the molt season.”

Contact Pete Carey at 408-920-5419. Follow him at Twitter.com/petecarey.