Ten days before stone crab season opens Oct. 15, crabbers were setting their traps in the water to bring the local delicacy to restaurants and markets.
But as Hurricane Matthew roared up the east coast in the Atlantic, many Cortez crab fishers were waiting to load up the boats in earnest and place traps and trap lines.
At least 9,000 traps will go out from the boats at A.P. Bell Fish Co., president Karen Bell said Oct. 5, estimating 500-1,000 went out that day from the docks at 4600 124th St. W., Cortez.
Bell also operates the Starfish Company Market & Restaurant adjacent to Bell on the waterfront.
Capt. Marty Lee, operating from the Cortez Bait & Seafood fish house docks, 4528 119th St. W., Cortez, said Oct. 5, he and others with “Johnny’s group” will be setting 2,500 traps, but were “holding off until the weather passes.”
Matthew brought winds and rough seas to the Gulf of Mexico Oct. 6.
John Banyas owns N.E. Taylor Boatworks, Swordfish Grill & Tiki Bar and Cortez Bait & Seafood, with docks on 119th Street West and a retail store on Cortez Road.
While some crabbers placed about 300 traps Oct. 5, Lee and Capt. Timmy Thompson said they would wait. They didn’t want to take a chance and lose traps — the wooden slatted 2-by-2-foot slatted crates that are attached to a buoy on a line. Once in the water, wave and current action can push the traps 10-15 miles or bury them and they are seldom recovered.
Bell and the Banyas’ crabbers agreed — it’s too early to predict the bounty or pricing of stone crab season.
Once Joe’s Stone Crab of Miami Beach sets a price for stone crab, the market will follow, Bell said.
Crabbers typically allow the traps to sit three-five days before hauling them up to their boat to harvest the claws.
“They’ll spot check them to see if there is anything in them after a couple days,” Kim McVey of Cortez Bait & Seafood said.
After pulling a trap into the boat and removing the legal-size claws, fishers return the crabs to the water where they can regrow the claws, and then re-bait and re-set the traps.
Florida and federal laws allow harvesting claws two-and-three-quarters long and longer, measured from the elbow to the immovable portion of the claw.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission recommends only harvesting one claw, even if both are long enough by law, so the crab can forage for food and re-grow its appendage — and to fight off its predator — the octopus.
Claws may not be taken from egg-bearing stone crabs, identifiable by orange or brown eggs amassed on the belly of the crab.
Recreational harvesters can use up to five stone crab traps to harvest 1 gallon of claws per person or 2 gallons per vessel, according to the FWC.
Any unused traps should be removed to prevent ghost fishing, where other marine life is caught in the trap for long periods.
