Crab Craziness! Excitement builds as Dungeness season nears

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Nothing says Thanksgiving and Christmas in the Bay Area like a big plate of fresh Dungeness crab. After several challenging seasons, Bay Area fisherman are looking forward to an on-time start to the 2018 to 2019 season.

The recreational season begins Saturday, Nov. 3 at 12:01 am with the commercial season following on Nov. 15.

And excitement is already building.

At Pillar Point Harbor in San Mateo County, boaters are camping out to be in good position for this weekend's season start. ABC 7 News spotted stacks and stacks of crab pots lined up and ready to be dropped in the ocean.

Jim Anderson with the Dungeness Crab Task Force says they'll have a better idea of how the season is going to go when the first recreational fisherman brings back their catches this weekend.

The previous several seasons for parts of Northern California have been delayed to concerns over high domoic acid levels in the crab population but for right now things to appear to be okay for Bay Area fisherman.

It's a different story for fisherman further north. Last week, the California Department of Public Health issued a warning for recreation fisherman north of Eureka to the Oregon border after elevated domoic acid levels were found in crabs in that area.