Crab fishing delayed because of dangerous neurotoxin found in Dungeness crabs

Well this isn't good. With all the news lately about algae blooms all over the place, this coming out of CA is disturbing. I have seen a lot in the news on FL dealing with mass fish die offs from blooms lately as well.

Scary to think that you could die from eating a crab...I love crab. Makes me wonder what may be lurking in other seafood now as well....

Source

The California Fish and Game Commission voted on Thursday to delay the opening of crab season because of a potentially deadly domoic acid found in Dungeness crabs.

The decision was made at a hearing in Sacramento. No date has been set for the start of crab season.

Sport crabbing was supposed to begin this coming Saturday and commercial crabbing was set to start November 15th.

Many fishermen depend on these winter months for the majority of their yearly income.

Crabs can pick up domoic acid from algae blooms.

The health effects of eating the toxic crab varies. On the mild side, toxic crabs can cause vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and headache for people that eat them. But, severe poisoning can kill a person, which is why health officials are taking this seriously.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

What is the source of this neuro toxin domoic? Do they know?

originally posted by: Revolution9
a reply to: Vasa Croe

What is the source of this neuro toxin domoic? Do they know?

Algae blooms....

I guess they were so big and heavy hit with them this year that the crabs are now toxic to eat.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

There was no mention if they actually tested some crabs or if they are going solely on alge bloom levels.

At this point they could be just guessing. again

This is what I read awhile back, and I saw the article about the crab this morning.

www.takepart.com...

Bad El Nino,


So there saying they saw this in 1998 during the last big El Nino.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

I did not realise that algae could make the crab that toxic.

Is it a natural phenomenon I wonder or is human activity causing or exasperating this, such as global warming?

As long as deadliest catch stays on the air.

originally posted by: alienjuggalo
As long as deadliest catch stays on the air.

This seems to be a warm water problem

Doesn't demoic come from basically red tide algae? The toxin gets in the water and the plants and animals pick it up the sort of the same way large predator fish get mercury concentrated in their flesh.

When conditions stop being favorable for the algae, the toxin will get flushed out of the system pretty quickly, but until then, it's a problem.

originally posted by: Revolution9
a reply to: Vasa Croe

I did not realise that algae could make the crab that toxic.

Is it a natural phenomenon I wonder or is human activity causing or exasperating this, such as global warming?

Wait a minute! Are we back to global warming, or are we calling it climate change? It's so hard to keep up with this global lie. I just call it carbon credit scam.

as long as the Emerald City Dungeness are ok......special crabs....you know, the ones up in Puget Sound