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It's Time To Get Stone Crabby; Season Starts Wednesday

Tribune file photo by ROBERT BURKE (2008)

Several restaurants feature stone crabs between Oct. 15 and May 16.

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By NEIL JOHNSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 13, 2008

Updated: 10/13/2008 03:49 pm

Florida's stone crab season opens Wednesday, meaning commercial and recreational crabbers can begin pulling the granite-shelled delicacies from traps that have been collecting the crustaceans in the Gulf of Mexico the past 10 days.

Commercial crabbers are allowed to place traps 10 days before the season starts but may not begin removing crabs until 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.

The season ends May 16 and if this season follows the trend of the past three, between 2 million and 3 million pounds of claws will find their way to seafood houses and eventually into the bellies of diners.

Florida's commercial stone crab fishery is worth about $25 million a year. That's the price seafood houses pay crabbers.

The shaky economy, though, has crabbers and seafood wholesalers uncertain of the public's appetite for an expensive dinner.

"With the economy, everything's up in the air," says John Cox of Cox Seafood Tarpon Springs, the branch of the family business that handles stone crabs.

Everyone in the industry is tightening belts, from cuts in advances crabbers get before the season to credit at the fuel dock.

"Everybody's pinched," Cox says.

Recreational Crabbing

If you have a strong do-it-yourself gene or don't want to pay retail price for claws, you can sidestep the fisherman and trap the crabs yourself.

Each person is allowed up to five traps.

You cannot use a mechanical device to pull the traps. They must be hauled aboard by hand.

You can harvest both claws if they're legal size but the crab stands a better chance to grow replacements if you take only one.

The legal size is 2 3/4 inches measured from the tip of the lower claw finger to the first joint.

You need a state saltwater fishing license.

You cannot take claws from females with eggs. You'll see those on the crab's belly.

Keep them the crabs cool and shaded while aboard your boat, and return them to the water alive.

Use care removing the claw. A stone crab's grip can break a finger.

You can find details about trap placement, markings and other rules at this Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission >site.

The Easier Way

If you'd rather use your energy just cracking and eating the claws, they should be available starting Wednesday at restaurants, grocery stores or seafood houses.

Claws are cooked as soon as they reach the dock so there's no preparation necessary on your part. They can be eaten cold or steamed five or 10 minutes to warm them.

The price depends on the size of the claw. Larger claws are more expensive.

Claws called "floaters" are less expensive but have less meat inside so you're paying for more shell per pound. You may find peddlers of roadside bargain-priced claws are selling them.

They are called floaters or lights because they rise to the surface while boiling. They come from crabs that recently molted and the flesh hasn't filled the new shell.

Claws are usually more abundant from the start of the season through about the end of November. After that, in a typical season, the harvest begins to drop.

The price of claws this season won't really settle in until the second week or so, when crabbers have an idea about the abundance of crabs and retailers judge the public's demand.

Weather is the main factor affecting the amount of stone crab claws available. Storms can scatter traps and make it more difficult for crabbers to leave the dock.

Most commercial stone crabbing in Florida is from St. Marks in the Panhandle through the Keys, though the heart of the industry is in the Keys.

Reporter Neil Johnson can be reached at njohnson@tamatrib.com.

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