CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SAN FRANCISCO : Crab Fishing Barred Pending Toxin Tests

Authorities said they should know by next week if Northern California Dungeness crabs have been tainted with a deadly toxin recently found in other shellfish along the Pacific Coast. Meanwhile, state officials closed the Northern California crab fishing season after a similar action by health officials in Oregon and Washington to guard against the potentially fatal toxin. Dungeness crabs caught off Ft. Bragg, Eureka and Crescent City were being tested for the poison, called domoic acid, by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The ban does not apply to crabs caught in Central California off Marin, Sonoma and San Francisco counties, where a price dispute has been settled and the fleet has set out to sea.