Attention Stoners!!

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Crab feast only a dive away

By Byron Stout
bstout@news-press.com
Published by news-press.com on October 14, 2004


Beginning Friday, right on through the middle of May, there will be easier ways to get a plate full of stone crab claws than by diving them up for yourself.

But you won't get at least two side benefits:

"It's a fun thing to do for a day," said Lar Gregory, a Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer who even spends off-duty time on the water. Getting down with stone crabs adds a whole new dimension to enjoying Southwest Florida's great outdoors.

And if you get your claws the retail way, you won't end up with the roaring appetite that comes with any day of diving.

Nor will you ever be able to get stone crab claws so fresh — a quality seafood connoisseurs seriously stress for stoneys.

On the plus side, you could end up with a heaping helping of some of Florida's finest seafood.

"A good day would maybe a half-gallon, to, the most would be a gallon of claws," Gregory estimated. That easily could be more than $100 worth.

Stone crab catches are measured by the quantity of claws, because possession of a whole crab is illegal. Nothing but the white claw meat of a stone crab is eaten, so fishery managers have made the grumpy crustaceans Florida's most renewable seafood resource, by prohibiting harvest of the whole crab.

Divers snap off one or both legal-size claws, and with any luck the crab grows them back. One survey of seafood houses showed one out of every five claws were regenerated limbs — sometimes regrown as quickly as a single molt after being taken. Crabs grow a new claw under their shell, and out it pops after the old shell is shed.

The crabs, of course, are not particularly cooperative about the whole procedure. They tend to be very secretive during daylight hours — particularly in clear water — so the diver's first job is to locate a donor.

Lee County's Cooperative Extension Service Marine Agent, Bob Wasno, said any nook or cranny into which a stone crab can back is a likely lair. The crabs always face outward, with their powerful claws as the first line of defense. The same large muscles that make the claws so meaty, also can exert enough crushing pressure to pulverize the seashells on which they feed.

Both Wasno and Gregory use the same gloved-hand technique for capturing the ponderous, sumo-like crabs.

"If you're quick and you can get your hand on them right away, before they have a chance to get defensive and they spread their claws out in attack mode, you can just grab them and hold their claws against their body," Gregory said.

If they are really wedged into a tight spot, or they do put up their dukes, then a prying tool may be in order. There are no regulations regarding tools, except that the declawed crabs must be released alive, so a crab's shell can't be cracked or punctured in the capture process. Nor can a crab be transported before the claw is measured and, if it meets the minimum legal size, removed.

Scuba divers have an advantage in diving for stone crabs, because they can work deeper water. Wasno cites the pilings of the old Boca Grande phosphate dock and the Big Carlos Pass Bridge as good spots, and he recommends all of the inshore artificial reefs off Lee County's coast.

But snorkelers also can search for crabs at places like the rip-rap along the abutments of the Sanibel Causeway, and the Big Carlos Pass Bridge.

"You've got to pick and choose your days. You've got to find slack tides, and we try to find a day when there is not going to be heavy boat traffic," Gregory cautions would-be bridge divers.

But, he notes, there is no hurry; the open season lasts until spring, when the water often is at its clearest, anyway.

Or you can let your fingers do the diving on the Internet. Claws last season were being shipped for about $20 per pound for medium (6 or 7 per pound), to $33 for colossals, at 1 or 2 per pound (plus $32.50 shipping, plus $2.50 per pound).

WHERE TO DIVE
LEE COUNTY:
• Belton Johnson Reef, 26-25.503 N / 82-11.682 W
• Big Carlos Pass Bridge
• Boca Grande phosphate dock
• Doc Kline Reef, 26-20.877 N / 82-05.650 W
• GH Reef, 26-20.510 N / 81-57.389 W
• Helen's Reef, 26-38.018 N / 82-17.454 W
• Mary's Reef, 26-46.079 N /82-18.463 W
• Sanibel Causeway

CHARLOTTE COUNTY:
• New reefs off Gasparilla Pass, both circular, 1/2-mile in diameter:
• Rich Novak Reef 2.5 miles, 265 degrees off Gasparilla Pass (13 tons of culverts) 26-48.570 N / 82-19.700 W
• Jerry Trembley Reef, 5.2 miles off Gasparilla Pass (I-75 bridge material) 26-48.350 N 82-22.700.

STOME CRABS IN THE KITCHEN
• Stone crab claws must be cooked (parboiled) before being put on ice, to prevent the meat from sticking to the shell.
• Meal planning — Stone crab claw meat is so rich, 3 ounces (.2 pounds) can be considered a portion. One pound of large claws yields about .4 pounds of meat. Large to jumbo claws will run two to five per pound.
• Serve cold or reheat claws in hot water or under a broiler. Purists eat them dipped in butter. The culinary avant garde may prefer a variety of sauces, including a warmed mustard sauce prepared with sour cream.
Claws should be cracked with a hammer or nut cracker before serving. Diners should be warned that cracked claws can inflict severe cuts if not carefully handled.
• Nutritional value: A cooked 3-ounce serving of meat contains: 60 calories, 0 grams fat, 15 grams protein, 45 mg cholesterol, 300 mg sodium, and 4 grams calcium.

IF YOU GO
• WHAT: Stone crab diving
• WHEN: Open season Oct. 15 through May 15
• WHERE: Salty coastal waters
• SALTWATER FISHING LICENSE: Required with some exceptions, including divers younger than 16. For info or license, contact: county tax collectors; toll-free 888 FISH FLORIDA (888) 347-4356; online: myfwc.com.
• REGULATIONS: Minimum size — claws must be 23/4 inches from elbow to (lower) immovable tip. Illegal to possess whole crab. Daily bag limit — one gallon of claws per person, or two gallons per vessel, whichever is less. No harvest of egg-bearing females. Five traps maximum for recreational harvesters.
• Divers must fly a diver-down flag.

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Divers snap off one or both legal-size claws, and with any luck the crab grows them back. One survey of seafood houses showed one out of every five claws were regenerated limbs — sometimes regrown as quickly as a single molt after being taken. Crabs grow a new claw under their shell, and out it pops after the old shell is shed.

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CBulla:

One for females with roe, two for males. They can still feed themselves. I stone crabbed for 7 years and put marks on some crabs in the 2nd season just for giggles.. in the 3rd and 4th season I found these crabs in the traps again.

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CBulla:

~Sub~ Your more than welcome to come down and give a paw gettin the claws from the stoners... its not as easy as it sounds!

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CBulla:

Will let you know how it goes tomorrow, we're hittin out offshore about 15 miles to do a little shootin and maybe a pick a few claws if the fish aren't visiting.

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