Bait costs about 25 cents a pot. 

 Crabbers usually buy scrap fish such 

 as menhaden and bluefish in the 

 summer and pinfish and croaker in 

 the winter. Others fish for their bait, 

 but most say it takes too much time. 



Howell uses 12 gallons of gas to 

 cover 80 miles on a typical day. 

 When the harvest is good, it's worth 

 it. But when the pots don't fill, it 

 hurts. 



Some days, he makes 50 cents to 

 $1 a pot. "And some days you can 

 make nothing," he adds. 



Most state crabbers sell their 

 catch to local restaurants or to fish 

 houses that ship the product to other 

 markets. Prices for live crabs 

 fluctuate like the tides. In the winter, 

 when crabbers catch few hard crabs, 

 the price goes to 40 and 50 cents a 

 pound. Jimmies, or large male crabs, 

 sometimes garner $1 a pound since 

 they're sold to Northern markets. But 

 by summer, when crabbers can catch 

 up to 1,000 pounds a day, the price 

 drops to 15 cents a pound. 



"You can tell how good the 

 crabbing is because of the price," 

 Howell says. "At forty and fifty cents 

 a pound, you know you're not going 



to catch too much." 



When the crabs start moving in 

 the sounds, crabbers follow, some- 

 times working 18 hours a day, seven 

 days a week. 



"You work real hard when the 

 crabs are there," Howell says. "You 

 have to make the money if the 

 opportunity is there." 



Hard work is one thing 

 crabbers agree it takes 

 to make a living. 



"Some make very good livings 

 and some barely get by," Hines says. 



Street estimates a highliner, or 

 expert fisherman, fishing 500 to 

 1,000 crab pots a day could gross 

 $50,000 a year — before paying 

 expenses and one helper. And 

 Howell estimates a fisherman can 

 make about $30,000 working with 

 hard and soft crabs. 



With rising operating costs and 

 competition from imports and other 

 crabbers, "the real return to fisher- 

 men is probably considerably less 

 than it was 10 years ago," Street 

 says. "To maintain their market 



share, they must use more pots. They 

 get the same catch with twice the pots 

 they used five years ago." 



Crabbers face other challenges as 

 well. A shell disease struck crabs in 

 the Pamlico area. And a constant 

 feud boils between shrimpers and 

 crab potters over territories. 



One of Howell's biggest concerns 

 is declining water quality. Runoff 

 from nearby development and the 

 Croatan National Forest infuses 

 harmful nutrients. And storms upset 

 the delicate balance between fresh 

 and salt water, he says. Wetlands help 

 filter the nutrients, but they're 

 threatened now, too. 



"Wetlands are a must for crabs," 

 he says. "Without them, we'd have 

 nothing. Marshes, creeks, rivers and 

 sounds — without that, that's the end 

 of the fishery. The more it disappears, 

 it affects the cycle." 



Howell has banded with other 

 Bogue Sound fishermen to preserve 

 the area's fishery. Crabbers tend to 

 assemble in small, localized groups 

 rather than in large associations, he 

 says, so they can voice their concerns 

 for the waters they work. 



Howell's hope for the fishery's 

 future is uncertain. "Somebody will 

 always be doing it," he says. 



At the end of his morning on 

 White Oak River, he circles the 

 shoals and heads home with a box 

 half full of blue crabs. For now, 

 nature's bounty seems elusive. But 

 nature's clues promise something 

 better. E 



Howell and Mad Dog head out on 

 White Oak River for a morning of 

 crabbing. 



COASTWATCH 5 



