Lifting a three-month health warning on eating Dungeness crab caught off the Bay Area coast, the California Department of Public Health Thursday declared the tasty crustaceans safe for consumption.

The state officials, as of now, have only permitted recreational crab fishing. The commercial crab fishing, it is learnt, may take at least a week for resumption, and that too if the state Department of Fish and Wildlife gives its approval.

The health advisory had delayed the beginning of the crab season since November. Still, people have been advised to remove the guts before cooking the crabs. Besides, the crabs must be boiled or steamed instead of being fried or broiled and the cooking water should be discarded, the health agency has said.

The ban was imposed due to the presence of domoic acid in the crabs, which is a potentially deadly neurotoxin. The acid has been found to have declined to low or undetectable levels in crabs captured from various parts.

Patrick Kennelly, food safety section chief for the state Department of Public Health, said recent tests confirmed that the crab caught in some areas, including San Francisco, Half Moon Bay and Monterey, no longer showed the risk of domoic acid.

The domoic-acid contamination followed widespread blooms of algae, caused by record warm temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, last year along the California coast. The fishermen, restaurants and crab distributors have seen major monetary losses due to a delay in the recreational and commercial fishing seasons, which begins around November annually.

Dante Serafini, owner of the Old Clam House restaurant in San Francisco, said, “It’s encouraging, very encouraging. I have served customers crab from Oregon and Washington all season. The prospect of restoring local crabs to the table is a very favorable development. The thing is, the crabs are very plump because they’ve remained in the water,” he said. “So we’ll get the best crabs we’ve had in years”.