Crabbing on Mecox Bay
How the Atlantic blue crab got its name.
A mouth-watering article in today’s NY Times extols the joys of eating Atlantic blue crab. Photos of cooked crab dishes accompany loving descriptions by John Willoughby and Chris Schlesinger of catching and cooking crabs every September in Massachusetts.
I’ve never gone crabbing myself, but I’m fascinated by the many crabbers who work this stretch of Mecox Bay on Long Island.
Crabbing at sunset on Mecox Bay
Mecox Bay’s crabbers encompass a wide variety of ages and ethnicities.
Crabbers in matching shirts.
But the technique is pretty much always the same.
A raw chicken leg or neck is tied to a string and dropped into the shallow waters by the edge of the road.
Crabber checks the many strings he has attached to pilings.
The crabber waits patiently with a long-handled net at the ready to catch the crab after it has locked on to the chicken. Some people stand right in the water to wait for their prey. Most stay on shore.
Crabber takes a break.
Once the crab has been netted, it is dropped into a bucket or cooler to await its fate.
Crabs await their fate.
This entire stretch of road is so chicken-scented that Esau the dog doesn’t want to move past it. It’s also, sadly, often littered with styrofoam meat trays and stripped bones on strings.
A chicken bone still attached to its fishing string.
Chicken bone on a string
There are restrictions on crabbing.
A flyer listing crabbing restrictions is posted along the road.
But I rather doubt they are closely followed.
Although you might not know it from photographs of cooked meat, Atlantic blue crabs are beautiful animals.
Blue crab. Image: Maryland Department of Natural Resources
Earlier this month, I talked briefly with young scientists collecting crabs not for food but for research.
Catching crabs for a research experiment
They used a trap as well as the standard tools of the trade.
They were trapping both blue and green crabs for an experiment to compare the mussel-eating habits of the two animals. All crabs would be kept without food for 24 hours, so that they were all hungry. They would then be given mussels and their consumption rate compared.
Watch this amazing little video, and you will see that crabs did not evolve their claws just so we humans could eat them.
Explore posts in the same categories: 2012, Fall, In the Country, Seasons, Wildlife/Natural HistoryTags: Atlantic blue crab, catching blue crabs, crabbing in the Hamptons, crabbing on Long Island, crabbing on Mecox Bay, NY Times article on catching and cooking crab
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December 31, 2012 at 7:46 pm
nifty video
September 29, 2012 at 6:38 am
That’s an interesting post. The blue crabs are impressive and rather beautiful. ‘Crabbing’ is a fun thing that holidaymakers here do with their kids, baiting hooks with pieces of bacon and dangling them in the water of the harbours. They only catch little ones though and then throw them back, so I imagine a queue of little crabs waiting for a bite to eat, getting thrown back in the water and getting back on the end of the queue……
September 29, 2012 at 9:32 am
Love that image of the crabs queuing up for a bit of bacon. It’s into the pot for these poor fellows.
September 27, 2012 at 2:22 am
Fascinating how nature’s design is built for purpose. Great video footage – strength of claws!
September 27, 2012 at 9:27 am
It is amazing to see those claws in action, isn’t it?
September 26, 2012 at 3:24 pm
The photos you include could be Lavalette, NJ. where I saw people of all ethnicities crabbing along the bay.
However when I was a kid, summering in Cape Cod, we used to fish from a rowboat outfitted with an outboard motor. We used fish heads from fish, we’d caught the previous day, as bait
We’d tie them on a string and haul them up to be scooped up in a net.
Some days we had so many, the bottom of the boat was full and we had to keep our feet up on the seats.
And just to think, I’m a vegetarian now.
September 27, 2012 at 9:28 am
What a memory, Virginia, having a boat so full of crabs you couldn’t put your feet down!
September 26, 2012 at 1:33 pm
At a crabbing spot I know in Mass., the snapping turtles rush towards people on the bridge because they think they’re bearing chicken parts. Meanwhile, on the western end of L.I., we’ve got the blues, too, both crabs and mussels (curious that the video calls them “black mussels”).
September 27, 2012 at 9:22 am
Everybody loves chicken! What a sight those greedy snappers must be.
September 26, 2012 at 1:27 pm
We also do scientific research on blue crabs. Part of this work is done in Puerto Rico, where the crabs are caught in local lagoons. Blue crabs are so voracious and aggressive that it’s often sufficient just to stick into the water a piece of wire, without any bait at all. The crab will attack it and cling to it even when it’s pulled out of the water…
September 27, 2012 at 9:21 am
Oh, that’s amazing, Vladimir! These guys seem fairly wily, slipping away before they get netted. What are you researching in Puerto Rico?
September 27, 2012 at 9:46 am
Physiology, not ecology or anything like that. Basically, how the crab heart works…