Crab finally arrives in Sonoma County supermarkets

Dungeness crab hauled in fresh from the coastal waters of Northern California has arrived in local supermarkets, much to the delight of hard-core fans who mark the autumn season by their first bite of the succulent shellfish.

The catch is in with plenty of time to include crab on the menu for Thanksgiving, a North Coast tradition that went by the wayside last year amid health concerns linked to a persistent harmful algae bloom that resulted in an unprecedented 4½-month delay in the commercial season.

But the fleet was allowed to fish on time this year, beginning Tuesday, albeit only in waters south of Point Reyes.

Good fishing weather meant live crab began showing up by Wednesday afternoon at seafood counters in places like Oliver's Markets and G&G Supermarkets, whose customers had been phoning for days, eager to find out when they could buy their first crabs, store personnel said.

Hundreds, probably thousands of pounds, have been snapped up already by the likes of Jack and Pam Davisson, who bought their first two crabs Thursday at Oliver's on Stony Point Road after unexpectedly finding it in stock earlier than they had expected.

Losing out on crab last fall and winter was “a big deal,” Jack Davisson, 66, conceded.

“During crab season, we'll have crab often, maybe two times a week,” he said.

Jessica Kam, 33, said her family of six similarly lives off the stuff, ordering crab from other areas when they can't get it live off the North Coast. Sometimes they fish for it, too, off Bodega Head.

“We eat it once a week,” she said, as a G&G seafood clerk packaged up 10 writhing crustaceans for her to take home for dinner.

Dungeness crab is one of California's largest fisheries, with commercial landings that peaked at $95.5 million in 2011-12, then settled closer to $60 million a year after that, about half of it landed by the North Coast fishing fleet.

Sales are fueled by high demand over the holiday season, from Thanksgiving to Christmas and New Year's, and even Chinese New Year.

But catastrophe struck last year, when an unusually large and persistent bloom of Pseudo-nitzschia - a common summertime ocean inhabitant - lingered amid warm ocean conditions.

The result was increased bioaccumulation of a neurotoxin naturally produced by the algae that turned up in crab and other shellfish, as well as marine mammals.

An unprecedented and painful 4½-month delay in California's commercial Dungeness crab season ensued, costing the North Coast fleet its lucrative holiday market, when the bulk of fresh crab is harvested and sold.

The crab crisis, sandwiched between two extremely poor salmon seasons, was disastrous for the fishing industry, whose participants struggled through the year holding out hope for a normal, even bountiful Dungeness crab season this fall and winter.

But a return of Pseudo-nitzschia algae in isolated areas kept the Sonoma Coast closed to crabbing when the season opened as usual on Tuesday, although sample crabs tested for domoic acid came in at much lower levels than a year earlier.

Continued testing has steadily improved to the point that many hope to see the current restrictions lifted before the end of the month.

In the meantime, larger commercial vessels out of Bodega Bay and points north - all the way up the California coast and into Oregon and Washington, where the season starts later - have converged on the waters between Half Moon Bay and Point Reyes to get first crack at a lucrative fishery.

“It's been a long dry spell,” Bodega Bay crabber Dick Ogg said by phone as he eased his boat into Drake's Bay to rest for the night earlier this week after three busy days setting and pulling crab pots in ocean waters jammed with boats and crowded with great webs of gear. “I'm really happy.”

But like many others in the local fleet, Ogg said he regretted that state wildlife officials decided to open the season without the Sonoma Coast, putting significantly more fishing pressure on the waters around Point Reyes, where the crab were quickly getting scooped up by large vessels and there were so many buoys and crab pots in a confined space that tangling and all kinds of other issues had been cropping up.

But for those whose Thanksgiving feasting isn't complete without some cracked crab and sourdough bread, the harvest could hardly come soon enough.

“Last year was miserable,” Santa Rosa resident David Hanson said as he picked some up Thursday at G&G on West College Avenue.

“I love the flavor,” he said, “and they're just fun.”

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 707-521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.