PHOTOS: Dungeness crab season finally arrives in the Bay Area

The Bay Area’s Dungeness crab lovers can now put local crustaceans on the menu.

After a weeks-long delay, crab fleets on Wednesday were allowed to pull up their first haul from the waters off the San Francisco, San Mateo, Marin and Sonoma coasts.

By early afternoon, crews that faced gnarly weather in the Pacific were arriving at Fisherman’s Wharf, Half Moon Bay’s Pillar Point and Bodega Bay.

“I would have been out there longer, but the weather picked up fast,” said fisherman Mike Vorak, who still managed to haul four big pails of crabs into Pillar Point, where he sold them at $10 a pound off his boat, the Tonita. With eager buyers lined up in anticipation, he ran out quickly. Other fishermen sold their crabs for $11.50 a pound at a nearby seafood market.

The traditional Nov. 15 start to the commercial season was delayed this year, as it has been other years, by the risk of whale entanglement in fishing lines. California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife gave the go-ahead after ocean surveys showed whales moving out of harm’s way and heading to their southern breeding grounds.

Groceries, fish markets and restaurants have been able to offer Dungeness for most of December — thanks to an early start to the crab season in far Northern California and from Monterey Bay south — but the fresh Bay Area haul should greatly bolster supplies.

“It’s not a banner catch but there will be plenty of crabs available for people to enjoy,” said Ben Platt, president of the California Coast Crab Association.