Crabbing weekend

[Marin]

Four traps for two days, each one of them came up like this both days.

 

[Manly Q.]

Hi Marin.

These look similar to what we get here in Moreton Bay called Spanner crabs but we are spoilt by our seafood in the south east of Queensland and all along the coast of Oz.

Regards.

David.

 

[ksanders]

That is a Fantastic catch!!!

 

[Marin]

That is a Fantastic catch!!!

On the other hand..... the Dungeness crab regulations here are five legal-size males per license per day Thursday through Monday. Yesterday we had three licenses on the boat, today we had two. Which meant much of what we caught went back to their homes on the bottom. But at least the volume let us be selective in keeping only the largest males and still easily meeting our quota.

 

[stubones99]

Marin, What are the round holes in the cage for?

 

[Moonstruck]

Great catch, Marin.

 

[Pau Hana]

Marin, What are the round holes in the cage for?

The round holes are escape ports, and the "X" lines are rot cord. should the traps become lost, the rot cord will deteriorate and break, leaving an escape route for the crabs.

 

[stubones99]

It looks like your crabs are bigger than the holes.

Neat idea though.

stu

 

[Marin]

Apparenty they will fit through or most of them will. The hole size is mandated by the Washington State fisheries folks. All cage-type traps used here, regardless of the style or size, must have escape holes. Even the type of string is defined. Dungeness have very powerful claws-- I know because one clamped down on one of my thumbs once-- so once the string has weakened a bit they'd have no problem cutting through it.

While the load of crabs in the trap in my photo may look impressive it's actually been fairly typical for us over the last three years we've been doing this with our friends. I attribute this partly to the bait we started using.

 

[stubones99]

That would be a major bummer to not be able to fit through the hole... and still not be able to get the bait fish

I guess only slightly worse is being put in a pot of boiling water...
stu

 

[Marin]

That would be a major bummer to not be able to fit through the hole... and still not be able to get the bait fish

I guess only slightly worse is being put in a pot of boiling water...
stu

We don't put whole, live crabs into the boiling water (or steamer, which is better). The method of cleaning I was taught, which we do at the dock when we come in (all we need is a dock cleat to do it) kills the crab instantly and leaves us with just the parts we eat-- the leg "clusters" from each side and the meat-filled "connector" they're attached to. Everything else drops into the water much to the delight of the fish that live in the harbor. However, since we are not consuming the crabs on a boat in the harbor we have to retain the backs (separately) until we get to our place of residence.

 

[SteveH]

One here almost makes it through the hole.