February 17, 2026 — Commercial Dungeness crab fishermen off the Humboldt County coast are finally entering the first couple of weeks of the season after a delay pushed the start into January. The delay was tied to high levels of domoic acid, after problems were identified during preseason testing back in September in Northern California.
“We started to see a domoic acid problem during our pre-season testing in Northern California as early as late September. It impacted the recreational fishery, which began on November 1st,” said California Department of Fish and Wildlife Environmental Scientist Christy Juhasz.