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THE SARASOTA HERALD-TRIBUNE
| Monday, October 13,
1997 Section: SECTION: A SECTION Edition: All Page: 1A Correction: RULES MAY RESTRICT FISHERMEN By John DeSantis STAFF WRITER Near the old Sigma fish house
in Cortez, the crab traps are stacked and ready, colorful styrofoam buoys
tucked modestly inside their lids.
Each day a few more of the traps, heavy with fresh-poured concrete, are
hand-loaded onto the Kerry Lee, which takes them out to sea. By the time
stone crab season officially opens Wednesday, nearly 2,500 of the Kerry
Lee's traps will lie beneath Gulf waters, a fraction of Florida's
estimated 800,000 active traps.
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| Residents' and visitors'
mouths already are watering for the sweet, abundant meat the claws will
offer, and crabbers anticipate pulling in as much as $4 per pound for
their labor-intensive catch.
State regulators are more ambivalent about the season's opening. The increase in traps and people fishing for the crustaceans has spawned a concern: Are there too few crabs for too many fishermen? Because of that concern, change could be coming to the industry, in the form of new regulations. Some of the options officials are looking at were revealed last week. It is news that puts a bitter edge on the start of the season for some of the smallest and newest crabbers in the business - some of them refugees from the effects of the 1995 gill net ban. The statewide ban on the nets was hailed by conservationists. But fishermen and people in fish-related industries were hit hard. Former gill-netters who now trap stone crabs say they could be the first ones cut out of the business if the state approves a recommendation to limit crab licenses next year. They say it is a ``double-whammy.''
In the Manatee County fishing village of Cortez, stone crab season does not generate the excitement of mullet seasons in pre-net-ban years. But the coming harvest offers the hope of a few extra dollars for Cortez fishermen and for owners of other businesses in the area. Lou Nassar, owner of the Cortez Grocery, said last year's stone crab season helped a community reeling from the gill-net ban's effects. ``We did well. It's nice now to see people having some money to spend,'' Nassar said. At the Cortez Cafe across the street, owners Robert Balmer and Loretta Wilkerson host fishermen during the early morning rush. ``This is a fishing village; this place used to be packed with fishermen,'' said Balmer, who is pleased that the approach of stone crab season is bringing a little more business each day. After the 1995 net ban, independent commercial fishermen in Cortez and
elsewhere - as many as 500 statewide - turned to stone crabs as a life
preserver. Many were already fishing blue crabs when fin fish weren't
running. The low blue crab dollar yield could not make up for lost gill
net dollars. But stone crabs, which can fetch $3 and $4 per pound, offered
a good way to make up for some lost income with a product in undeniable
demand.
Moore's Stone Crab Restaurant on Longboat Key has been getting calls for weeks from diners anxiously wanting to know when the delicacy will be available. In Bradenton, Crabby Bill's general manager Pat Joyce has been fielding the same questions from regular diners and a few drop-ins. He has no doubt about the reason for all the fuss: ``There's more meat and it's easier to get into than a blue crab. The flavor is very good, comparable to a snow crab.'' Some local restaurants prefer not to count on stone crabs because they sometimes have been difficult to get in the past. But marine biologists say this season should yield a bountiful crop of the delicious decapods. A recent state report on the stone crab fishery notes declines in juvenile crab populations in the Tampa Bay area. Officials say the decline can be attributed to several factors, including red tide and vulnerability to natural predators. More crab traps put out by more crabbers is seen as a problem as well. However, people generally do not kill harvested crabs; they return them to the water where they regenerate their claws - new meat for future seasons. Scientists estimate, though, that only 25 percent of returned, declawed crabs survive. Yet scientists do not see harvest as a factor in the stone crab declines noted in the Tampa Bay study. ``It doesn't show any of the obvious signs of being seriously depleted,'' said St. Petersburg-based state biologist Theresa Burt. ``But it is heavily utilized.'' Burt prepared the study on the species for state conservation officials. So are new rules proposed to limit stone-crab licensing - starting in 1998 - a matter of conservation or ofeconomics? The Gulf Council - an advisory committee composed of seafood-industry and environmental representatives who advise the state on managing marine resources - is recommending that stone crab licenses only be issued to people who can prove they harvested stone crabs for six years before 1995 - the year the net ban took effect. The proposal comes even though stone crab licenses already are limited: When the gill net fishery was closed in 1995, a moratorium was placed on stone crab permits. Only fishermen who already had a stone crab permit then could harvest the crustaceans in the future. The new proposals will be addressed Nov. 5 in St. Petersburg, in the first of several hearings on the issue. Burt said the new rules would target speculators trying to buy a valuable commodity - the stone-crab fishing license - not try to control crab populations. ``The reason they are discussing it is to prevent people who are still speculating from getting a permit on a certain year. . . . Who knows what happens to fisheries after limited entry? Those licenses could become valuable.'' Limited entry is a term for the proposed form of regulation. She added, ``It has nothing to do with biology and everything to do with fishing and speculating on limited entries.'' Still, scientists have begun to urge caution about conservation. Steps should be taken now to limit future harvesting to avoid problems later on, they say. The stone-crab market already was saturated with traps when some commercial mullet fishermen turned to it on a small-scale basis following the net ban. And adding traps does more than affect the stone crab population. More traps, state officials say, mean more disputes over thievery, snagging of pleasure boat propellers, snagging of shrimp trawls, ensnaring of dolphins in buoy lines and complaints of loggerhead turtle injuries. There are reports that loggerheads occasionally break into traps, because stone crabs are a favorite delicacy. Roy Williams, assistant executive director of the Florida Marine Fisheries Commission, Wednesday summed up the licensing proposals now on paper: ``Limited entry, some encumbrance on entry and a reduction in the number of traps.'' The Commission is merely examining its options, he said.
In Cortez, the once-bustling Sigma building stands as a monument to defeat. While small-time fishing operations remain as an industry in the quaint old town - with the harvest of bait shrimp, grouper and crab - the activity is substantially slower and less lucrative since the net ban. Small-scale crabbers say the majority of people who have been in the stone crab industry for decades, indeed, would not mind seeing them displaced. ``If it's going to be regulated it should be regulated 100 percent,'' veteran Cortez fisherman Arculo Tupin said. ``It should be equal opportunity right across the board. The big places want to know why should those little people get in there and aggravate us. They don't even want us in there starting with it. They want it all for themselves.'' Small crabbers in other parts of Southwest Florida agree. Bigger operators do not say they want to put anybody out of business, but they acknowledge that there are lots of traps in the water. ``It's like going to Las Vegas,'' said Paul O'Leary, co-owner of the Kerry Lee. The Kerry Lee's 2,500 traps are worth about $10 each in terms of materials alone. That does not account for labor involved in pouring the concrete that lines the bottoms. The bread O'Leary is casting on Gulf waters thus comes to $25,000 from the very start, not counting fuel, crew costs and other incidentals. Williams does not think anyone should be pushing panic buttons yet. The Legislature will have the final say on who stays and who goes, if anyone must go, he said. ``My guess is, the Legislature will not put them out of business. However, fishermen as a whole, not individually, have to realize that if you leave it as a totally open access system they are going to work harder and harder to catch the same or less - probably less,'' he said. ``And what you usually find is that 90 percent of the fishermen don't object to limited entry as long as they can get enough to fish themselves.'' Burt, the biologist, said she is aware that some former net fishermen turned to stone crab for a needed economic boost. ``They will be affected by this, but that is a matter of unfortunate timing,'' Burt said. ``It's not directed at those people.''
Nondeadly harvest . . . * Unlike other seafood, stone crabs do not have to die to provide a meal. Their big, tasty claws - easily capable of crushing a finger - are snapped off during harvest aboard the boat, only temporarily disabling the crab which is returned to the water. * As many as 25 of 100 crabs returned to the water without claws survive, according to estimates by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. * Harvest survivors grow new claws, which sometimes are also harvested. * New claws grow to harvest size after two seasons of molting, or growing of new shells. In some cases, new claws big enough to harvest have grown within a year, although it usually takes longer.
Harvest limitations . . . * Under Florida law, claws may no be removed from egg-bearing females. * Legal size for taker claws is a forearm measurement of 2 inches or longer. * Stone crab season runs from Oct. 15 to May 15. They may be recreationally fished as well.
Florida waters favored . . . * The stone crabs soon to be on tables will primarily be caught in Florida traps; the Sunshine State hosts the Gulf of Mexico's largest fishery. * The large, oval-shaped creatures are harvested in far smaller numbers along the Atlantic coast.
Succulent catch . . . * About 2 pounds of claws yield a pound of meat, and because the meat is so rich, three large claws are considered an ample serving for one person. * Claws usually are cooked before being frozen, since freezing or icing raw claws causes them to stick to the shell. Once cooked, the claws freeze well. * For best eating, thaw frozen claws in a refrigerator for about 12 hours.
Underwater feast . . * Stone crabs are nocturnal predators and scavengers that eat smaller organisms that live on or near the ocean floor. Mollusks are a stone crab favorite. * The crab falls under the octopus in the food chain, and the octopus has been known to cuddle up in crab traps to consume its favorite, crunchy delicay - a situation that has posed a big problem for crab fishermen in years past. STAFF GRAPHIC/LIMBERT FABIAN
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Illustration: PHOTO (3C) CHART A stone crab claw is a delicacy. FILE PHOTO
Wade Lewis stacks crab traps on his 20-foot skiff at the docks in Cortez. STAFF PHOTO/MIKE DIEMER
Jonathan Lewis, 2 1/2, helps his dad, Wade Lewis, with crab trap floats at the Cortez docks. STAFF PHOTO/MIKE DIEMER
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