Sour talk as lawmakers, crabbers meet over Dungeness shutdown

In this photo taken Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015, crab pots fill a large section of a parking lot at Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay, Calif. California delayed the Nov. 15 start of its commercial crab season after finding dangerous levels of a toxin in crabs. Photo: Eric Risberg, Associated Press

Lawmakers joined scientists and fearful crabbers in an unusual meeting Thursday to fret over the continued closure of the Dungeness and rock crab fishing seasons, a major economic blow to the state that experts say could be just the beginning of ocean ecosystem trouble.

The legislative hearing by the Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture was held in Santa Rosa to go over the financial impacts, public health issues and ocean conditions behind the recent shutdown of the recreational and commercial crab seasons.

The commercial fishery, which brings in from $60 million to $95 million a year, was closed before the scheduled opening on Nov. 15 after testing of crab by health officials showed toxic levels of domoic acid, a neurotoxin known to cause seizures, coma and even death when consumed by animals or humans.

The meeting, hosted by state Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, was an attempt to give people information and hope that the beloved, historic crab fishing industry might eventually be restored. But most of the information given out was decidedly grim.

“This is a situation that is causing real harm to people we care about at our department … but public health and safety has to come first,” said Charlton Bonham, the director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “I’m intent on our department doing whatever it takes to get seasons open as soon as Mother Nature allows it.”

Recent crab samples indicate that the situation is improving, with domoic acid levels in Half Moon Bay, San Francisco and Morro Bay coming out clean. But the health advisory cannot be lifted until all samples collected from the entire region show safe levels of domoic acid for two weeks in a row.

Samples in Monterey and the northern part of the state, including Fort Bragg and Bodega Bay, are still showing high levels, according to the California Department of Public Health.

The problem is that poisonous algae known as pseudo-nitzschia has been multiplying in the ocean since April. It grew dramatically through August and has infected numerous marine species in addition to crab. Blooms have been estimated to be 40 miles wide, the biggest and most toxic bloom collectively that researchers have ever seen.

Domoic acid concentrations in Monterey Bay have measured 10 to 30 times the level considered toxic. Levels of 30 parts per million in the viscera and 20 parts per million in the meat of crabs are considered unsafe to eat, according to health officials.

This year, crab with domoic acid levels of 240 parts per million have not been unusual. One sample in the Channel Islands tested at 1,000 parts per million.

“It’s really like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” said Eric Sklar, a member of the California Fish and Game Commission. “This really is unprecedented and it’s important to remember that.”

Experts say the chief cause of the toxic blooms is consistently high ocean temperatures caused by climate aberrations that are being reinforced by a strengthening El Niño weather pattern in the tropics.

The waters off the West Coast have been as high as 6 degrees warmer than normal. The anomaly began a couple of years ago when the wall of atmospheric pressure over the Pacific that blocked storms from hitting California — and kicked off the drought — also kept cold, stormy air from stirring the ocean and moderating water temperatures.

“Ocean conditions are changing and they are changing fast,” said Sklar, who urged legislators to seek more funding for research. “I really look at this as a shot across the bow. We are going to see this more and more.”

Cat Kuhlman, executive director of the Ocean Protection Council, said the El Niño is not expected to alleviate the huge fluctuations in ocean temperatures, animal deaths and mass migrations of marine species, which she called the “new normal.”

“It’s highly likely we will have more of these algal blooms under any scenario,” said Kuhlman, who is also deputy secretary of ocean and coastal policy for the California Natural Resources Agency. “All of a sudden we’re seeing these really large fluctuations and we’re going to need to respond to that.”

The biggest fear expressed during Thursday’s hearing was the possibility that the crab fishery might not open at all this season. That would be a devastating blow for fishers, who have already been hurt by a poor salmon season this year that yielded one-third of the average harvest.

A California congressional delegation recently urged Gov. Jerry Brown to be ready to ask the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to declare a state of disaster if the season doesn’t open, a move that would free up federal aid for crabbers.

Joe Caito, the president of Caito Fisheries, which processes millions of pounds of crab a year from Eureka, Fort Bragg and San Francisco, said the fishery closure has harmed even frozen crab sales, with clubs and other groups canceling annual crab feeds up and down the coast.

“The industry has already lost its Thanksgiving holiday sales. We may lose the rest of the year,” Caito said. “Without the volume sales our profits are going to be compromised, our employees aren’t going to get a paycheck and we just can’t make up the sales.”

Caito said things aren‘t likely to get a whole lot better even if crab season opens.

“We need to gain back consumer confidence in order to get people to buy crab,” he said.

Angela Cincotta holds a fresh Dungeness crab imported from Washington state at the Alioto-Lazio Fish Company on Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, Calif. on Friday, Nov. 20, 2015. Recent tests indicate that domoic acid in Dungeness crab have dropped to acceptable levels but it will still take a little while longer to lift the ban on the local crabbing season. Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Jorge Cham (left) and Jose Hoil peddle Dungeness crab imported from Washington state to tourists walking past Nick’s Lighthouse restaurant on Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, Calif. on Friday, Nov. 20, 2015. Recent tests indicate that domoic acid in Dungeness crab have dropped to acceptable levels but it will still take a little while longer to lift the ban on the local crabbing season. Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

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