SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Dungeness crab fishers from Northern California to the Canadian border are on strike after wholesale buyers sought to lower the purchase price.

The strike started Wednesday after buyers offered to pay $2.75 a pound for the tasty crustacean. Crabbers whose seasons had already opened had negotiated a price of $3 per pound.

The strike does not affect commercial crabbers south of Sonoma County’s Bodega Bay, where customers have been snapping up the holiday dinner table staple since November.

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But prices were not set in all fisheries because the West Coast commercial Dungeness crab season opened in phases this year, due to elevated domoic acid levels.

Lorne Edwards, president of the Bodega Bay Fisherman’s Marketing Association, said he expects the strike to continue through New Year’s Day.