Kayak Crabbing

[John H]

I would like to try some blue crab.

After the dungeness molt they are soft, not full of meat and not so good for eating. It is like a 4” crab in a 6” shell. They test the crabs before they open the commercial season and delay the start if the crabs are not at least 25% meat. They also have to make sure there are no whales around that will get tangled in the ropes and that there is no domoic acid in the crabs. If all that is clear they haggle over price with the big buyers and if that gets done they start crabbing. Needless to say the commercial season never starts on time which is good for the recreational crabber because the commercial guys mop them all up pretty quickly.