Shedding 

 a Soft 

 Commodity 



By Carla B. Burgess 



Jerry Wolff moves around inside 

 his gas-heated shed like an expectant 

 parent. The Otway fisherman scoops 

 blue crabs from a basket with his 

 hands, placing them carefully in one 

 of a dozen wooden trays filled with 

 water. 



The afternoon of trawling in Core 

 Sound produced a good sample of 

 peelers, crabs that are about to shuck 

 their shells to grow in an annual rite 

 of spring. 



Like other commercial fisher- 

 men, Wolff has learned the telltale 

 signs of an impending molt — the 

 color changes on the creature's 

 paddle fins and apron, its docile 

 behavior. It's a skill that can mean 

 the difference between pennies or 

 dollars a crab. 



Once they bust loose, the nearly 

 2,000 crabs he's so diligently tending 

 this late March day will bring a hefty 

 $2 apiece on Northern soft-shell 

 markets. In the restaurant atop the 



6 MAY/JUNE 1992 



