You can not teach a crab to walk straight. -Aristophanes 450-385 BC
Travelling the waterway from South Florida up to South Carolina has taught us a lot of different things, but one of the more surprising is the art of crabbing. Having grown up on the Chesapeake, I thought I knew a thing or two about catching crabs, but apparently I didn't understand the stealth involved.
You see, the crabs down here have incredible eyesight, a requirement for surviving in the murky brown waters. The local crabbers have needed to develop some especially crafty techniques for working around the blue crab and stone crab's defense mechanisms. One of the first things that a boater notices when watching these crabmen is that the proper color of the float buoy attached to the pot is critical. Bright orange or yellow are out, the crab would see those from down below in his muddy lair in an instant, and avoid the baited pot like a Congressman avoiding his conscience. Likewise red, chartreuse, or any other easily noticeable color could never possibly work. It's best to paint your floats black or a very dark blue so that they can't be seen from down below. White can sometimes work as well, but only when it's windy and the whitecaps from the waves obscure the float. Sure, you're thinking maybe boats would run over these hard to see floats and tangle the lines around their props, but that's irrelevant. The stealth needed to hide these floats far outweighs the loss of a few pots because of careless boaters.
Find the crab pot float in the picture. (Hint-you can click on the picture to enlarge)
The next most important thing to know about successful crabbing is pot placement. You can't just put them out in random lines, you have to know where the crabs are and put your pots there. And crabs just love the deep water along the center of narrow channels. Again, you need not worry about a few pots lost due to boaters who like to travel in straight lines and are too lazy to figure 8 around your floats. Just put them where the crabs are, that's all that matters. Particularly in small anchorages. I don't know why it is, but crabs tend to congregate around areas where boats like to anchor overnight, so this is an ideal spot for placing most of your traps. The trick here is to space your pots about 50 feet apart, so that someone needing to put out 75 feet of anchor line will find it impossible to anchor and have swinging room between your floats. Don't worry, they'll just get discouraged and go somewhere else.
Lastly, if you're a crabman, don't ever forget that you are saving the country! From 'Blue crabs fight terrorism' "A substance found in crab shells called chitosan has very useful properties. For example, it has been used in bandages to stop bleeding. But now, researchers at the University of Maryland have used the chitosan from blue crabs living in Chesapeake Bay as a component of a nanoscale sensor system which could save many lives in the future. These blue crab nanosensors will be used to improve security in airports, hospitals and other public locations by detecting tiny amounts of explosives or chemicals in air and water."
So feel free to place your pots anywhere you want!
I don't know but you seem kind a bitter about those crab pots, are you making those quotes up. Hey man, like you know man, like chill man, wow it seems so tense in here man, like really bad vibes dude. Try not to keep it inside you'll feel better if you just let it out.
ReplyDeletehey, if you can catch the crabs, think of it like having an expensive dinner for free.I don't know what they go for down there, but up here in the mountians they sell for around $23 a dozen.Also, Brittany finished the mile only 6 seconds slower than me.Pretty impressive for an 11 year old.I'd better watch out, next year she might beat me.
ReplyDeleteI usually just pull into the anchorage and pull up all the crab pots I need to make some space. Then I take the crabs and leave little notes inside saying thanks for yanking the engine out of my boat a few years back with your F***** crab pots.
ReplyDeleteJust kidding. I actually only tie up to the pots to save my anchor chain from getting rusty.
I hate rusty chain and anchors :) If you tie up to 10 of them it is pretty good holding.
I especially like the black or dark blue floats... those are way cool!!!
In the crab processing facility the boys get together and laugh about those blow boats getting all tangled up in their floating crab pot lines.... "15 or 20 horsepower engines... what a joke, serves em right for not having some real power!!!! Hey, pass me some of that sauce earl,,, you pull pots like my grandma! "
“The crab that walks too far falls into the pot”. Haitian Proverb (I know its lame)
ReplyDeletewe used to snag lobster traps with our rudders in the channels in the keys with our Lokoino. I would notice the change in speed, say from 15 to 14 knots. Look back and see this object being dragged on the surface. Next trip we had a pruning saw on board, worked like a charm. Talk about your hazards to navigation!