Coastal Restoration

One of the driest seasons on record last year means the harvest field didn't get enough rain. Weeks of triple-digit heat sent the crustaceans burrowing deeper into the mud, many unable to emerge.

More than a thousand feet below the surface, the ocean floor seemed to come alive before the eyes - and cameras - of a team of scientists.

The shellfish should arrive in restaurants as early as Wednesday and in fish markets later this week, meaning Bay Area families can return to the tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving with platters of freshly steamed and cracked Dungeness crab. The best retail prices are expected to be $5.99 to $6.99 per pound, according to Mike Lucas, president of North Coast Fisheries, a shellfish processor and distributor in Santa Rosa. On Wednesday, the two Woodhouse locations will return to offering their “Dungeness Madness” special: a whole steamed crab with potatoes, greens and garlic bread for $20 (the price will likely rise over the weekend). After last year’s season was delayed by months because of a toxic algal bloom, the start of this year’s brought a sense of relief to those in the fishing industry. Crab boats began dropping their pots in the ocean Monday and were allowed to start pulling them up at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. At Sun Fat Seafood, a market in the Mission District, employee Hoa Kuu said he expects to have local crab in the store this weekend. There is one limit on the fishery, though, as a 60-mile stretch of the coast between Point Reyes and the Mendocino-Sonoma county line is not yet open because of sporadic domoic acid showing up in tests conducted by the California Department of Public Health.