More North Coast waters opened for Dungeness crab fishing

State health and wildlife officials are opening another segment of the California coastline to Dungeness crab fishing, but coming so late in the season, it’s a bit of a mixed blessing.

Except for about a 50-mile span north of Humboldt Bay, the Department of Fish and Wildlife opened waters Tuesday from the Sonoma-Mendocino county line to the Oregon border.

The same waters will open for commercial fishing May 12. Commercial crabbers may start setting gear in the water at 8:01 a.m. Monday the agency said.

It’s unclear how much the openings will help the northernmost commercial crabbing fleets, which have been deprived for more than five months of harvesting the prized crustaceans because of a statewide closure from health risks related to a harmful algal bloom.

Though coastal waters have gradually been cleared - including those off Sonoma County, which opened to commercial fishing March 26 - Del Norte and Humboldt counties have been shut down throughout.

North Coast State Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, said the recent opening of more commercial fisheries does not diminish the need of federal disaster relief for the region. California legislators have appealed to Congress and the Secretary of Commerce, Penny Pritzker, for help.

“This latest opening is good news and will benefit hundreds of families and the local economies in Del Norte and Humboldt counties,” McGuire said in a written statement. “But this opening comes extremely late in the season. The vast majority of Dungeness crab is consumed over the holidays, which is why we all need to continue to push for federal disaster relief which will benefit our state’s struggling crab fleet.”

The Dungeness crab season usually runs Nov. 15 to June 30 south of the Sonoma-Mendocino county line, and Dec. 1 to July 15 to the north, allowing North Coast fishermen to take advantage of the lucrative winter holiday markets between Thanksgiving and the Chinese New Year, which usually falls between Jan. 21 and Feb. 20.

But a persistent and unusually toxic algal bloom that tainted a variety of shellfish up and down the West Coast had especially long-lasting effects on crab. Scientists believe crabs’ constant contact with the contaminated sediments on the ocean floor are the reason it takes longer for them to clear their systems of domoic acid, a neurotoxin that prompted health officials to declare the crabs off-limits for human consumption.

State health officials say levels of the substance in test crab have dropped to very low or undetectable, except for a stretch of water from Humboldt Bay to the Reading Rock State Marine Conservation Area near Orick. An area around the Channel Islands off Southern California also remains off-limits.

Health officials continue to recommend against consuming the viscera, or internal organs, of a crab - also known as the guts or the butter - as well as using the liquid in which crab are boiled for any other cooking. Contaminants are usually concentrated at higher levels in the internal organs.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary ?Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter?@MaryCallahanB.