Washington fishery managers say they are in “uncharted territory” following the closure of a major ocean fishery off the state’s southern coast.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced it was closing the recreational and commercial Dungeness crab fisheries after samples of crab revealed unsafe levels of a harmful, naturally occurring marine toxin called domoic acid that has already shut down razor clam fisheries in both Oregon and Washington.
Though fishery managers have closed Dungeness crab fisheries before, most recently in Willapa Bay in 2003, that closure was much smaller.
“We’ve never had a major ocean closure like this before,” said Dan Ayres, coastal shellfish manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Read more at the Chinook Observer.
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