Crabbers turn soft-shells into hard cash 



If you're going to make a living 

 as a commercial fisherman, 

 you've got to be willing to try a 

 little bit of everything, says Milton 

 Styron, a fisherman from Davis. "I'm 

 a full-time, one hundred percent com- 

 mercial fisherman," he says. And the 

 emphasis is on 'commercial.' 



For three generations, the Styrons 

 have been working at the business of 

 fishing. That meant going wherever 

 there were shrimp, oysters, clams, 

 scallops or crabs. 



And through all those years, they've 

 been producing soft-shell crabs in 

 floating trays in Core Sound. Lately, 

 their crab-shedding has paid off. 

 Styron says he gets as much as $20 a 

 dozen for his soft crabs at the opening 

 of the season in spring. 



But he says the money hasn't 

 always been that good. "I can remem- 

 ber back ten or twelve years ago when 

 soft crabs were only bringing a dollar a 

 dozen," says Styron. 



That was before most people knew 

 you could eat a soft crab, legs and all. 

 Years ago, peeler operations were com- 

 mon in the state, but then fishermen 

 decided shedding wasn't profitable 

 enough, says Sam Thomas, Sea 

 Grant's seafood specialist at the 

 NCSU Seafood Laboratory in 

 Morehead City. 



Now soft-shell crabs are becoming 

 known as a delicacy and command a 

 high price, particularly from buyers in 

 the North. 



Fishermen can land extra profits if 

 they're willing to cull out peelers and 

 hold them until they shed, says Wayne 

 Wescott, a Sea Grant marine advisory 

 agent in Manteo. Since crabbers have 

 access to peelers, the two enterprises 

 naturally go hand-in-hand. 



"Often a crabber either doesn't take 

 the time to sort his catch or, in some 

 cases, he might not know how to iden- 

 tify the peelers. With a little bit of ef- 

 fort, they can get a better price for 

 their crabs," says Jim Murray, Sea 

 Grant's advisory services director. 



Wescott says basic economics has 

 encouraged crabbers to sell both hard 

 and soft-shell crabs. "Not only is the 

 soft crab good to eat," says Wescott, 

 "but the quantity of edible meat in a 

 soft crab exceeds that of the hard crab 

 by ten to fifteen times. Because of this, 

 the dollar value of soft crabs is much 

 higher than that of hard crabs per in- 

 dividual crab." 



At the start of the season in 1983, 

 the highest recorded price for hard 

 crabs was $1 per pound. At the same 

 time, soft crabs were bringing as much 

 as $2.33 each or $28 per dozen in New 

 York. (Wescott estimates that two to 

 three hard crabs weigh one pound.) 

 While prices for both soft and hard 

 shell crabs come down as the season 

 progresses, soft crabs bring a higher 

 unit price than hard crabs throughout 

 the season, says Wescott. 



If commercial fishermen catching 

 hard crabs were to save their peelers 

 for the crab-shedding trays, North 



"Not only is the soft crab 

 good to eat, but the quan- 

 tity of edible meat exceeds 

 that of the hard crab by ten 

 to fifteen times." 



— Wayne Wescott 



Carolina's soft crab production could 

 more than double, says Wescott. 

 Maryland is the leading producer of 

 soft crabs. Virginia is second. North 

 Carolina and Louisiana compete for 

 third. 



But North Carolina soft-shell crab 

 production is increasing. From 1981 to 

 1982 landings of soft-shell crabs almost 

 doubled in North Carolina, says Terry 

 Sholar, a marine biologist with the 

 Division of Marine Fisheries. Sholar 

 attributes that increase to the numbers 

 of fishermen who have been giving 

 soft-shell crabbing a try. 



In March, Sea Grant sponsored a 

 statewide workshop to bring fishermen 

 up-to-date on crab shedding. Over 250 

 commercial fishermen attended and 

 several hundred other fishermen have 

 contacted marine advisory personnel 

 for information on shedding crabs. In 

 an informal survey of the workshop's 

 participants, 47 percent said they add- 

 ed or changed a shedding operation af- 



