THE AMERICAN CRAB INDUSTRY 



617 



or salt fish or some cheap meat is used as bait. When the fishing begins, the boat 

 moves along the line which is passed over a roller located in a bracket attached to 

 the side of the boat. As the line is lifted to the surface by passing over the roller, 

 the crabs are taken oflF the bait with a short-handled dip net and sorted as to size 

 and condition. 



"If the boat is equipped with an automatic net arrangement, the crabs are 

 knocked off the line into a net as the bait goes across the roller in progressing 

 along the line. It is more diflBcult to grade the crabs with this type of apparatus. 

 When the net is full or the end of the line is reached, the net is swung over the 

 deck of the boat and emptied by untying a cord at the end of the net and dump- 

 ing the crabs into a barrel. 



"The most successful trotline fishing is done in the early morning just at day- 

 break. It is believed that when the sun is shining directly on the crabs they will 

 drop off the bait before they reach the surface of the water. Usually crabbing 

 ceases before noon so that the day's catch can be delivered to the picking plants 

 before it is damaged by being out of the water too long. 



"When the day's fishing is completed, the line is rebaited, salted heavily to pre- 

 serve the bait, and coiled in a barrel covered with a sheet of canvas or tarpaulin. 

 It is thus ready for fishing the next morning." 



{Courtesy U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service) 

 Fig. 29-5. The automatic dip-net for removing crabs from the trot line. 



In winter, when most of the crabs retire to deep water and either partially bury 

 themselves in the sand or lie inactive on the bottom, they are captured only with 

 dredges. Fifty- to 60-foot sailboats, equipped with auxiliary engines, are used in 

 dredging. The dredge resembles the scrape in many ways, although it is much 

 larger and has a row of teeth about 4 inches long on the bottom. Its length varies 

 from 5 to 7 feet, and the bag is usually only about 2 feet long. The lower part 

 of the bag is constructed of iron mesh, the upper of cotton. A dredge is usually 

 dragged from each side of the boat by means of a chain about an inch in diameter 

 which passes over a roller and around a pulley attached to a stout post placed 

 upright in the middle of the boat and thence down and around a windlass in the 

 hold. The 2 windlasses are operated by the engine controlled from the pilot house. 

 The dredges are hauled in alternately and their contents dumped on deck. Two 

 men are required to handle the dredge, one working forward and the other aft 

 of the dredge. The crabs are raked from the debris by hand or with small hooks, 



