California Spiny Lobster: Reminders and Advisories for the 2023-2024 Season
Get your gear and report cards ready! As announced in an earlier blog post, the recreational California spiny lobster season is set to open at 6 p.m. this Friday Sept. 29th, 2023.
While you prepare your fishing plans, please know that the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has delayed both the recreational and commercial season openers in portions of Los Angeles and Orange counties to protect the public. State health agencies have recommended the recreational and commercial season delays due to elevated levels of domoic acid, a deadly natural toxin recently found in lobster there. Testing results made available this week indicate that domoic acid levels in lobster are still above the health hazard threshold. Areas adjacent to the delay area are under a health advisory that warns against eating recreationally-taken lobster viscera (guts) or roe (eggs).
Please be sure to read the press release describing the closures and review maps of the recreational closure and advisory areas or commercial closure area before taking lobster. The areas will be reopened when two lobster samples obtained at least a week apart indicate that consuming lobster from the area is no longer a public health threat. CDFW will post notices on the website and in the media as soon as any changes are made.
The lobster fisheries will open as planned outside of the closure areas. Remember that recreational divers and hoopnetters will get to take advantage of an extra night of fishing, since the opener is 12 hours earlier this year along most of the Southern California coast.
Get the latest information about closures and advisories on CDFW’s Domoic Acid Fishery Closure Information Line at (831) 649-2883 and on the Shellfish and Finfish Health Advisories web page. For the latest consumption advisories, call the California Department of Public Health’s Biotoxin information Line at (510) 412-4643 (toll-free at (800) 553-4133), or visit their interactive shellfish advisory map.
The original CDFW blog post was first published here on 9/28/2023.
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