Californian Crabs No Longer Pose Any Significant Health Risk

Officials from the Department of Public Health have given the all-clear in regards to toxin-containing crabs from along the California coast. The seasons began Thursday.

The Dungeness crabs were first banned due to their high toxicity levels.

Despite the opening seasons, state health officials are still urging people to avoid eating the internal organs of crabs.

California’s rock and Dungeness crabs were completely banned during the holiday season in 2015. Crabs should be boiled or steamed, not fried and the water in which they were boiled should be thrown immediately. The advisory will be lifted in those areas once ongoing monitoring by CDPH determines crabs from those areas are safe to consume.

Dungeness crab are the most common variety sold in the North State, but it has only been available when caught outside the state because of the risk from domoic acid found in crabs caught in California.

One theory, Kennelly said, is that perhaps the warmer waters resulting from El Niño caused the plankton’s bloom to last longer than previous years. Larger doses of the domoic acid contained by the infected crab meat could have led to seizures, memory loss on short term and even death. Also, keep in mind that the viscera could still be risky, so make sure to remove it. The symptoms of the infection appear after 24 hours and if you identify them as a domoic acid infection, you should go to the hospital urgently. She also warned to discard the cooking liquid if boiling or steaming the crab whole. Mild symptoms, which disappear within several days, may include vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, headache and dizziness, officials said. The conditions that support the growth of this plant are impossible to predict. While the bloom that occurred earlier this year has dissipated, it takes a period of time for the organisms feeding on the phytoplankton to eliminate the domoic acid from their bodies. The broth, health officials say, could concentrate any toxins that leach out from the guts.