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By: Charlotte Twine
about stone crab People just love stone crab claws from the Florida Keys. Even when fetching prices as high as $59.95 per pound, diners will line up at local restaurants the first weekend of the harvest in October and happily take out their wallets to pay for a scrumptious meal centered around the delicacy. Unfortunately, the harvest is low this year. According to Keys Fisheries general manager Mike Priebel, the fish house’s year-to-date harvest for the 2021 to 2022 season is at 117,507 pounds. This number is down from the previous season, which was 249,828 pounds total. The reason could be two-fold: warmer water temperatures and less dirt at the bottom of Keys waters.
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“At the opening of the season, on October 15, we saw shed of exoskeleton,” Priebel said. “This is highly unusual.” He explained that when the water is warm, stone crabs shed their exoskeletons and stay buried in the dirt to keep warm and avoid predation by octopuses and groupers. As a result, they aren’t moving around enough to find the bait in fishermen’s traps. And if stone crabs with a shedded exoskeleton are caught, their claws aren’t full of meat at that stage of their life cycle. And less meat equals less pounds.
Bill Kelly, the executive director of the Florida Keys Commercial Fisherman’s Association, explained that the stone crab catch has been off since Hurricane Irma, which stripped the mud off the limestone rock prevalent throughout the area. “We affectionately refer to stone crab as ‘ditch diggers,’ because they live in the mud,” he said. “What happened is we saw these animals move out of the area. A typical year, (the total catch) would be 2.9 million pounds or 3.2. And last year, the number was 2.2 million.” And when the catch is down, it affects local commercial fishermen and their families. “If you take fish, lobsters and stone crab, the value with turnover is $900 million annually. Next to tourism, (commercial fishing) is the second largest economic engine in Monroe County and second largest employer, with 4,500 jobs,” Kelly said. Priebel and Keys Fisheries vice president Scott Dekle have hope. “I think the stone crab catch is cyclical,” said Dekle. “Data collection is done by the government to monitor the species and make sure the species is sustainable and not fished out.” Priebel agreed that the harvest is cyclical. “I hope it comes back,” he said.
