Glimmer of hope for crab season
By Tara Duggan, San Francisco Chronicle
Local crabs for Thanksgiving are a lost cause, but crustacean lovers and local crabbers got a glimmer of hope Thursday.
New tests showed that crabs collected from the area around San Francisco, Half Moon Bay and Morro Bay have dropped to safe levels for domoic acid, the neurotoxin causing the unprecedented closure of the commercial crab season, which was supposed to open Nov. 15.
The new results from the California Department of Public Health are no guarantee the season will open any time soon, though. Local crabs tested high for domoic acid in previous tests, and in order to lift its health advisory against Dungeness crab for specific areas, all samples collected from that area have to test at safe levels — defined as below 30 parts per million — for two weeks in a row.