California's Dungeness crab season finally is fully cracking.
The North Coast from Mendocino upward opened Sunday to commercial crabbers. The opening was delayed more than a month by state Department of Fish and Game because crabs in the cold waters of the Pacific needed more time to mature. The amount of meat in the crabs was not enough to allow them to be taken by commercial crabbers.
Until this week, much of the sweet Dungeness crab stacked in display cases of area markets has come from the waters off the central coast, which includes San Francisco Bay and Half Moon Bay and stretches down to Monterey Bay.
The season for the central part of the fishery also was delayed this year as crabbers and buyers bickered over prices.
Pete Kalvass, state Department of Fish and Game senior environmental scientist, said the crab buyers he has spoken with say Bay Area crabbers have pulled in 6 million to 7 million pounds so far.
Last year was a bumper crop: 19 million pounds from the central part of the fishery.
That's a lot of melted butter.
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