"Bust, soft, crack," she says, 

 pointing to a tank sectioned off into 

 three areas. 



The couple has begun what for 

 the next two months will be a 24- 

 hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week work 

 schedule. The estuarine waters 

 hugging this coastal county warm 

 earlier than other areas in North 

 Carolina. Core Sound's early run of 

 peelers gives Wolff and other locals 

 even more edge on the market. 



"We get a higher price for less 

 crabs," he says. Although the money 

 is alluring, there's little glamour — 

 or shuteye — in crab shedding. 

 Peelers have to be checked con- 

 stantly. 



"I don't sleep at night," says 

 Jerry. "I get naps — four or five 

 hours here and there." He and Dawn 

 swap shifts throughout the night to 

 check and sort the crabs during their 

 various stages. 



Jerry rattles off a litany of 

 liabilities — thousands of dollars for 

 crab pots, hundreds of dollars for 

 gear, sky-high bills for electricity to 

 keep pumps and lights running. 

 "Right now if I make $1,000 in a 

 week, I haven't even begun to pay 

 my expenses," he says. "The early 

 stuff pays the bills. The jimmie 

 potting is my income." 



Jimmies, or large, mature male 

 crabs, lure female peelers to specially 



adapted crab pots. Isolated in a trap 

 door, jimmies release a chemical that 

 draws multitudes of amorous 

 females clamoring for company. 



Female blue crabs reach sexual 

 maturity after their final or "termi- 

 nal" molt. The male carries her 

 around until she sheds, then cradles 

 her to mate and protects her after- 

 ward until her shell hardens. 



Of course, female crabs that fall 

 prey to jimmie pots won't be allowed 

 to reproduce. But Sea Grant agent 

 and soft-crab expert Wayne Wescott 



Though frozen crabs 

 will sell later in the 

 season, most restaurants 

 want the soft-shells alive. 



says there is little chance the soft 

 crab fishery will upset the natural 

 balance. The she-crabs that remain in 

 the wild are a prolific lot. 



Females mate only once but can 

 store sperm to fertilize more than one 

 batch of eggs. "A female may 

 produce 6 million babies from one 

 mating," says Wescott. 



A few miles east in Smyrna, 

 Penny Hooper leans in anticipation 

 over a tank of crabs along the shore 

 of Middens Creek. A medium-sized 

 crab has almost backed out of its 



greenish-brown exoskeleton. Only 

 the shell of one blue claw impedes 

 the crab's escape. 



"You want to help them but you 

 can't," says Penny, who along with 

 husband Mark, keeps Hooper Family 

 Seafood afloat. "If you touch them, 

 they'll drop a claw." 



Chefs like their crabs intact, she 

 says, with at least one claw if not 

 both. 



Ignoring her own advice, she tugs 

 gently at the sleeve of the old shell 

 and the crab jerks its arm free. 



The crab will remain in the tray 

 for two to three hours while it pumps 

 water and puffs out the wrinkles in 

 its enlarged body. It is separated 

 from other pre-moit crabs, who are 

 quick to cannibalize busters and 

 those that are newly shed. If left in 

 the water longer than a few hours, 

 the crab would begin to harden 

 again. 



Timing is everything in the soft 

 crab business. Once the Hooper's 

 crabs have recuperated from shed- 

 ding, they are removed from the 

 water, packed in a straw-lined 

 cardboard box, topped with wax 

 paper and a drizzle of ice, and 

 shipped via refrigerated truck to the 

 Fulton Market in New York. 



Though frozen crabs will sell 

 later in the season, most restaurateurs 

 want the soft-shells alive. Chefs will 



8 MAY/JUNE 1992 



