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Crab Season Delated Indefinately |
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Tuesday, 13 November 2007 |
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Holiday cooks may have to look for a substitute
for their favorite crab recipes -- Commercial crabbers set to begin their season this week voted Saturday
to delay the opening of crab season and are asking Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger to close the waters outside the Golden Gate
to the take of Dungeness crab by sport fishermen, as well. Captains and crew
from commercial crabbing boats met in San Francisco
to talk about the impacts of 58-thousand gallons of heavy oil into San Francisco Bay
after a ship crashed into the Bay
Bridge. The oil has spread to beaches all
along the San Francisco waterfront and surged
out the Golden Gate, fouling a 40-mile stretch
of shoreline. As of Sunday morning, the mess has contaminated at least
23 beaches in the region, and killed or injured hundreds of birds.
. After their meeting, a spokesman for the commercial
crabbers said, "We
are asking for the immediate closure of both commercial and sport crabbing. And
we are asking for immediate action from the governor." According to
the San Francisco Chronicle, some sport fishing party-boat operators, who
depend on crabbing for their business in the winter months weren’t happy with
the action, saying they wouldn’t bring in contaminated crabs. Though there
probably are areas of ocean free of fuel over the local crabbing grounds,
almost all commercial crabbing boats rely on pumping in ocean water and
eventually bay water to keep their catch alive. "If there's even the slightest taint of fuel either
on the crab or in the holding tanks, we won't touch it because we won't be able
to sell it," said a seafood processor at San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf. "The
customer will not buy it and we wouldn't expect them to." Seafood
processors and wholesalers already have live Dungeness crab that has been
trucked in from the Pacific Northwest but are
doubtful they will have enough to meet holiday demand. As of Saturday evening,
there was no official response from the governor's office. For now, the sport season
for crab remains open, pending recommendation by the office of Environmental
Health Hazard Assessment and the Department of Health Services. A San Francisco
Chronicle story.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 27 November 2007 )
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