Commercial Dungeness crab season to stay closed

For now commercial crab fisherman are sitting idle, while recreational boats continue bringing in freshly caught Dungeness crab from the Monterey Bay.

“Yeah we thought yeah you know we’re getting closer, it’s going to open,” said crab fishermen Tom Hart. “But then it comes down, there’s conditions.”

California Department of Fish and Wildlife says the season isn’t going to open until test results show lower levels of demoic acid.

The state says the neurotoxin could be very dangerous to anyone who eats an infected crab.

“It’s clean in the north and its clean in the south,” said Hart. “But it’s a little area in the middle that just has to be picked up.”

But in the meantime fishermen have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“The issue is that we all paid quite a bit of money for our permits and everything to do with Dungeness,” said Hart. By March 1, we have to have a brand new license for this whole upcoming year.”

Bay Fresh Seafoods buys the crab directly from the boats and sells them to markets.

“Haven’t unloaded an ounce of crab this year,” said Bay Fresh Seafoods owner Roger Whitney.

Crab account for at least 50 percent of business this time of the year.

“We’re trying to be creative and do other fisheries,” said Whitney. “There’s very few right now that we can do, so it’s kind of tough hanging on paying your bills.”

But with the season potentially opening up close to spring, some fishermen feel it will be too late.

“Because you have more and more crabs that are molting,” said Hart. “They’re still good crab, but they’re bad crab and you have to separate them.”

Recreational crab fishermen are not allowed to sell their crabs.

Small Business Administration loans are available to fishermen and related businesses who rely on crabbing.

There could also be more help from the federal government on the way.

ORIGINAL STORY: State Fish and Wildlife officials have decided to keep California’s commercial Dungeness crab season closed.

They want to wait until the entire coast is given the all clear, or until it’s cleared to the Mendocino-Sonoma County line.

The news is tough on crab fishermen who have been pushed back all season because of unusually high levels of domoic acid in California’s crabs.

KION’s Maya Holmes will have more on how local fishermen are reacting Thursday night. She talked with a fisherman who said he was hopeful this wouldn’t be the case since state officials opened the recreational season last week.