SEA 



SCIENCE 



'The project should provide some 

 answers as to whether or not color actually 

 matters when catching crabs," says Marc 

 Turano, blue crab specialist for North Carolina 

 Sea Grant. "If so, this could lead to increased 

 efficiency for commercial crabbers, which 

 would result in higher profits." 



Bond is testing red, black, green and 

 yellow pots — more "traditional" pot colors 

 for the Albemarle region. The four colors were 

 randomly assigned to 1 00 pots for the study. 

 The pots are clustered in the deeper waters of 

 the Albemarle Sound to keep other boats from 

 running over them — Bond doesn't want the 

 results skewed by pots that are tampered with 

 or lost. 



CATALOGING CRABS 



"Number 24, red pot," calls Sharon 

 Bond, H.L's wife, over the drone of the boat 

 motor. 



H.L's son, Michael Byrum, pilots the 

 boat towards the numbered buoy. Michael 

 grabs the buoy line with a long, hooked pole. 

 He wraps the line around the automatic reel 

 and flips the switch to easily pull the pot 

 alongside the boat. 



Meanwhile, he pulls the pot from the 

 water and gives it a vigorous shake, emptying 

 the captured crabs onto a small wooden table. 

 He tosses the pot back in the water, and the 

 boat moves off towards the next buoy. 



Between pots, H.L sits at the table 

 grading the crabs and sorting them into bushel 

 baskets. The undersized crabs go overboard, 

 the rest are sorted by grade. 



Number 1 s are big, hard jimmies — or 

 male crabs that have the most meat. Number 

 2s are softer jimmies — they are not as fleshed 

 out as the number 1 s, and are worth a little 

 less at market. The number 3s are sooks — or 

 females. 



"Most people prefer the males, even 

 though the females can have as much meat on 

 'em," remarks H.L 



'Two number 1 s; four number 2s; and 

 two number 3s." Sharon records the catch in 

 her notebook. The notebook pages are carefully 

 laid out to track the pot number and color. 



"That's so we can keep up with the 

 pots, in case something happens to one of 

 them," explains Sharon. 



The remaining columns record 

 the number of each grade of crab, the 

 number of undersized crabs and the total 

 number of crabs caught per pot. All of this 

 counting and sorting is time-consuming 

 work. It takes a lot longer than pulling 

 H.L's personal pots. 



Normally, H.L. pilots the boat and 

 hooks the buoy line of each pot. Michael 

 "shakes" the pots onto the table, and 

 drops the pot back into the water. 



Instead of sorting these crabs by 

 hand, the wooden table the Bonds have 

 built does the work. The table is slightly 

 slanted and works as a ramp. The crabs 

 fall out of the pots, onto the table and 

 walk right down the ramp and into the 

 waiting bushel box at 

 the end. When the box 

 is full, H.L. places a wet 

 burlap bag over the 

 crabs to keep them cool 

 and sets up a new box. 



Still, "The 

 counting work goes 

 faster than the old days 

 when we had to pull the 

 pots up by hand," H.L. 

 says with a smile. 



ALBEMARLE 

 APPROACH 



In the Albemarle, 

 crabbing starts around 

 the end of April, when 

 the pots are set. 



"Usually by the beginning of May we're 

 pulling up our first pots," explains H.L. 



But you can't just set the pots once and 

 leave them all season. Blue crabs move up 

 and down the sound according to the salinity 

 of the water. The big males have just moved 

 west of where many of H.L's pots are set. 



A fellow crabber passes by, boat laden 

 with empty crab pots, heading west. He waves 

 at H.L. and motions ahead of him, signaling 



• THIS PAGE, TOP: Michael Byrum shakes the 

 crabs from the pot. 



• THIS PACE, BOTTOM: H.L. Bond grades the 

 crabs as Michael empties the pots. 



NEXT PAGE, TOP RIGHT: H.L. Bond has been a 

 commercial fisherman for 35 years. 



• NEXT PAGE, BOTTOM RIGHT: Sharon Bond 

 tracks and records the statistics for each pot. 



24 AUTUMN 2005 



