CDFW Marine News and Informational Notice - ​Spiny Lobster Updates

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. 29^th, 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. 

Due to the detection of elevated levels of domoic acid, a naturally occurring toxin, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) is warning consumers to not eat lobsters caught in specific coastal areas of Los Angeles County. Dangero​us levels of domoic acid have been detected in the body meat and viscera (internal organs) of lobsters. Cooking the lobsters does not decrease or destroy the toxin. The recreational spiny lobster season for California anglers begins on Friday, September 29, 2023.​

Consumer​​s are warned to not eat the meat, viscera, or roe of lobsters that are from state waters located between the northern boundary of the Point Vicente State Marine Conservation Area (SMCA) and the westernmost point of the Long Beach Breakwater. Read more...

The original press release from CDPH was posted here on 9/22/2023.

Close-up photo of California spiny lobster by A. Maguire
CDFW photo of California spiny lobsters by D. Stein