Crabbing at Semiahmoo, WA

Greg (R) and Kelvin inspect the Dungeness crabs for minimum size.

I'm from Maryland. Crabbing is in my blood. Maryland crabs are little guys and it takes a lot of work to shell and eat them. My family and friends in Maryland have trouble envisioning west coast Dungeness crabs.

Crab season in the northern Puget Sound area opens on Aug. 15 and runs thru Sept. 30. If the Dept. of Fish and Wildlife likes the numbers that us crabbers report  they extend the season thru the end of the year.  I don't know if they let us take more if we didn't take enough or because we caught so much they figure the fishery is good and its okay to keep going. From the DFW articles I've read the catch has been good in the last few years.

Greg and I got an opportunity to crab a bit this year and the crabbing was pretty good. We invited our friends Kelvin and Patty to join us since their boat was out of commission and I like company.

 

 

The crabs must be male and minimum size of 6.25 inches. 5 crabs per person/day limit.  Here's a nice bucket of Dungeness headed for the crab pot. Wrangling crabs out of the trap into the bucket can be a bit challenging at times. For some unknown reason crabs calm down when you turn them on their backs so if they are too belligerent we flip them.

Once we are back to the dock Greg readys for the really messy part - killing and cleaning. I used to do this part but it was too traumatic (once I chopped one in half and the heart was still in tact and still beating).  It was also very messy. Now Greg turns them upside down, grabs their left legs in one hand and right ones in the other. He then smacks the carapace (back shell) on a dock cleat or some other hard edged object. The crab is ripped in two, the carapace drops in the water and the two remaining halves are swished in the ocean to clean.

 

Watch out for those punchers!



 

 After five minutes in the pressure cooker and a little cooling down time, its time to start shelling and picking. I can't do this without eating as I go. At little bowl of water to dip my fingers in helps keep the little bits of shell out of the meat.

 

 

Just look at all this yummy fresh crab! As far as I'm concerned the best way to eat crab is straight out of the shell. I can easily eat two whole crabs at a time.

 

I was really looking forward to more crabbing but it was time to head south. Can't crab in Mexico, and most of that which is caught goes to restaurnats, so I'll have to swithch to eating shrimp. Poor me!