Supplementary file 1_A blooming dilemma: maintaining access to California crab while managing biotoxin health risks.pdf

Each of the measures considered—area closures, evisceration orders, depuration requirements, and educational campaigns—was found to have particular and potentially profound impacts and implications for the seafood system and its participants. The latter three measures, which are intended to mitigate the risk of consumer exposure to DA while still providing some access to the fishery and seafood products, differ in who can participate in the fishery, how and by whom the catch can be handled, and the product forms that may be sold.

All were considered problematic, with evisceration and depuration expected to affect access by re-distributing opportunities, costs and benefits among fishery participants and communities. Various mitigation strategies may lessen the adverse impacts of these measures, including “normalizing” evisceration and directing resources toward training, product development, and marketing to enable broader fishery and market participation, among others.

Further, our findings support a fundamental paradigm shift for addressing this issue from one of fishery resource management to one of food system management, utilizing existing frameworks and systems and making it consistent with how other food contaminant concerns are managed. Ultimately, such a paradigm shift could help mitigate impacts throughout the seafood system while offering a more cost-effective, efficient and balanced means for managing fisheries and DA events.</p>