Oil spill causes health concerns for San Francisco Bay area businesses

Fishermen are packing up and heading home now that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has suspended all commercial and sport fishing in areas affected by last week’s San Francisco Bay oil spill.\nThe decision likely will make the biggest dent in the highly anticipated commercial season for Dungeness crab, which was scheduled to start in ocean waters outside the bay Thursday, but has now been postponed for at least 2 1/2 weeks amid health concerns.\n“It will set us back quite a bit,” said Art Romine, 38, a crabber who planned to return home to Newport, Ore., after hearing about the suspension Tuesday.\n“We can’t be bringing in crabs that are possibly toxic,” he said. “That wouldn’t be good for the market at all. People don’t want to buy toxic food.”\nSome local fishermen were hired by the Port of San Francisco to help with the oil cleanup effort for $3,000 a day, less than a quarter of what they could make catching crabs. \n“They know the waters better than anyone,” port spokeswoman Renee Dunn told the San Francisco Chronicle.\nThe 58,000-gallon spill occurred when a cargo ship’s hull was sliced open by a collision with the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in heavy fog last week.\nThe pilot of the ship said he immediately reported the presence of oil in the water, but cleanup crews didn’t arrive for nearly 90 minutes. A Coast Guard log places a skimming vessel at the scene in 80 minutes.\nCoast Guard officials defended their response as “by the book,” but concede mistakes in their communication with the public. Initial reports set the spill at just 140 gallons; the Coast Guard waited hours after learning it was much larger before notifying local officials.\nFederal prosecutors are conducting a criminal probe and have interviewed members of the crew. The harbor pilot who was guiding the ship through the bay toward open water has not been subpoenaed in that investigation, his lawyer said.\nAssociated Press writers Scott Lindlaw, Paul Elias and Laura Kurtzman contributed to this report.