COLUMBIA COUNTY, Columbia County residents who head to the Clatsop beaches for fall razor clams will find them closed. The Oregon Department of Agriculture lists sport razor clam harvest as “CLOSED from the Washington border to the California border for high levels of the marine biotoxin domoic acid,” and commercial razor clam harvest on Clatsop beaches has been closed since Oct. 2, according to the department’s shellfish closures page, last updated Oct. 19.
Reopening takes “two samples in a row with toxin results below the closure limit,” at least a week apart, the page says. The department tests at least twice a month as tides and weather allow.
What Is Open
Mussels and bay clams are open along the entire coast, and sport crabbing is open in bays, estuaries, and from beaches, piers, and jetties year-round. Ocean crabbing is closed Oct. 16 through Nov. 30, its annual closure, per ODFW’s marine zone report. ODFW reports “some soft, recently molted, male crab that should be filling with meat and hardening their shells as we enter fall.” The agriculture department advises gutting crab and discarding the cooking liquid, because domoic acid can seep from the guts into the water and then the meat.
The Dec. 1 Crab Opener
Whether commercial Dungeness crab is in stores and on holiday tables on time depends on tests that begin next week. ODFW says it is lining up volunteer boats to pull crab from all 12 harvest areas “targeting the week of Nov 3, weather permitting,” with observers aboard. The Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission pays a $3,000 stipend per test trip and ODFW covers fuel and bait. Under the three-state protocol, meat fill and domoic acid results from those pulls are “used as a basis for deciding the crab season opening date(s),” ODFW says. Weekly updates post on the ODFW commercial crab page until the opening decision is made.
The agriculture department’s shellfish biotoxin hotline, 1-800-448-2474, is updated as soon as a closure is set.