Uncertainty abounds as stone crab season begins

CORTEZ — Going into Monday's start of a stone crab season hampered by both red tide and Hurricane Michael's trek last week through the Gulf of Mexico, Karen Bell doesn’t know what to expect.

“It’s a little perplexing,” said Bell, owner of Star-Fish Company and co-owner of A.P. Bell Fish Company in Cortez.

Crabbers around the state started putting out traps on Oct. 5, and Monday marks the first day they can be pulled and crab claws harvested.

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the edible parts of stone crabs are not affected by red tide and are safe to eat.

Bell said a couple crabbers have checked on traps, but early signs aren’t promising.

“They as of yet have not seen much in the traps but the general overview is red tide makes the crabs crawl more,” Bell said, relaying information of some crabbers who checked their traps before the hurricane’s arrival in the Gulf of Mexico.

Jeff Haugland, owner of Island Crab. Co. on Pine Island, said crabbers he works with typically don’t check on their traps until they start pulling them Monday.

“They don’t have a very long soak time on them yet,” he said.

Crabbers in north Florida he’s talked with have not been seeing much.

Around the Panhandle, many fishermen and crabbers are still coming to terms with the aftermath of Hurricane Michael.

Bell noted that semi-trucks full of ice were heading north from Cortez Friday evening to take ice to a wholesaler they work with there, Barber’s Seafood in East Point, which is east of Apalachicola.

From there, Barber’s has been giving ice away to residents who need it to keep supplies cool.

“No matter what, we’re still better off than they are up north,” Bell said.

Bell has previously noted that fishermen believe things are cyclical, with four or five good years followed by a lull — such as this past year, with grouper.

If that’s the case, then the October 2017-May 2018 season catch may be a hint of another downturn.

Last year, only about 2.1 million pounds of stone crab were harvested from the Gulf of Mexico — a significant downturn after several straight years of more than 3 million pounds.

In 2016, when 3.1 million pounds were harvested, the catch was valued at $33.4 million.

Stone crabs are a sustainable fishery in part because crabbers take only one claw — which will grow back — and throw the crabs back into the water.

Melody Kilborn, a spokeswoman with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said Hurricane Irma impacted stone crab season last year. While the FWC will study Hurricane Michael’s impact on this year’s fishery, it’s impossible to predict what it will mean.

Last year, Haugland noted that crabbers working out of the Everglades and in the Florida Keys had good hauls, compared to those farther north in the Gulf of Mexico.

This year, with the impact of red tide — which killed countless tons of sea life off the Gulf Coast — the catch could be reduced further.

Haugland said he’s hoping stone crabs burrowing below the sand may be less affected by the algae bloom and its associated neurotoxin.

Earlier this year, preliminary research conducted by scientists from Mote Marine Laboratory in conjunction with the FWC's Fish and Wildlife Research Institute showed that red tide toxins can threaten and possibly kill stone crabs.

Phil Gravinese, a postdoctoral research fellow at Mote Marine, who was first author on the research — published in the scientific journal “Marine Environmental Research” — previously said that fishermen reported catching stone crabs that looked lethargic in water with notable concentrations of red tide.

In an April interview, Gravinese noted that other research suggested that sub-legal and juvenile stone crabs couldn’t travel far enough to escape a red tide bloom that may be several miles long and 40-feet deep though adult crabs were more mobile.

One mark-and-recapture study conducted by other scientists found that adult crabs may be able to travel quickly enough to escape the effects of a bloom.

Meanwhile, crabbers are hopeful that the passing of Hurricane Michael stirred up the water just enough to make it murky and easier for stone crabs to come out of hiding.

“I think we need a cold front honestly,” Bell said. “That’s what the guys keep saying.”

Sarasota got just that on Friday, noted Marco La Manno, a meteorologist with SNN-TV, with morning lows in the 60s on Saturday.

“It’s not going to be a prolonged cooldown, but it’s still going to be a nice dose of the Suncoast version of fall weather,” he added.

Crabbers started pulling in their haul before dawn Monday. Smaller boats should arrive at the docks as soon as 1 p.m, with larger boats returning closer to 7 p.m.

“All we can do,” Bell said, “is wait and see.”

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