Pacific crab fishing season has been stymied by toxins caused by algal blooms.

(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The Pacific Northwest's commercial crab fishing season remains at a standstill from the toxic crab crisis where the crustaceans are still testing high withdomoic acid, a known neurotoxin. California, Oregon and Washington have all delayed their crab fishing seasons this year to avoid a consumer health scare.

The domoic acid in the crabs is a result of a massive toxic bloom known as pseudo-nitzschia, which was fed by the big blob of warm water this summer.

"The 'big blob' or 'warm blob' is a large area of unusually warm water over a large part of the Northeast Pacific Ocean," said Nick Wiltgen, Senior Digital Meteorologist at weather.com. "It started in earnest during the spring and summer of 2013 (some 2 1/2 years ago) near the Gulf of Alaska and has expanded to cover most of the northeastern Pacific Ocean since 2014. Several hypotheses have been offered on why the blob has formed and persisted. It could be that persistent but ultimately 'chance' weather patterns are responsible, but it's also possible that some yet-undiscovered cyclical pattern or mechanism is at work."

NOAA researchers studying toxic algal bloom infected water.

(NOAA/Michael Milstein )

The warm blob the largest toxic algal bloom ever recorded off the West Coast.

"The algae is always there to a degree, but the temperature was very favorable to this type of algae to take off,"said Michael Milstein, public affairs officer of NOAA Fisheries.

Clamming on much of the west coast has been shut down as well, Milstein noted.

"It's affected clams, and mussels, all these shellfish that help filter the water," he said. "It doesn't (hurt) them, but it accumulates in their tissue and potentially poisons people who eat it."

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"This has been a bit of a surprise for us," Daniel Ayres, aWashington State Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist told weather.com. "This is the first time the entire Washington coast has been closed for crab fisheries."

Ayres said that crab was an iconic part of the culture and economy on the West Coast. TheDungeness crab industry brought in$170 million last year.

"It's a big holiday item; it's common to serve it for Christmas," Ayres said. "We'll have to find another thing to have for our Christmas dinner."

Milstein noted that algae levels themselves have reduced, but it's not yet known how long it will take the concentrations in the crab to dissipate. "Dungeness crab is the biggest fishery by value in Oregon and Washington and second biggest in California, so the closures have a significant economic impact," he said.

Ayres said he's optimistic that the situation will improve soon that they'll be able to open crab fishing in January.

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