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October 15, 2002
MARATHON -- Brisk winds and choppy waters from a tropical system forecast to brush the Florida Keys may help bolster initial catches of stone crabs when the annual harvest opens today, fishermen say.
Local harvesters have expected a below-average start to the season due to unusually calm conditions since commercial fishermen seeded their traps Oct. 5.
But an approaching tropical depression could help the harvest of the claws. Tropical storm watches are up for the entire Florida Keys.
"We obviously don't want a strong tropical storm or a hurricane, but winds of 25 to 35 mph would help spur the crabs to walk along the bottom into traps," said Gary Graves, vice president of Keys Fisheries, the island chain's largest harvester of stone crab claws.
The waters off the Keys are the state's leading supplier of claws, with almost half of the harvest originating from there, according to Greg DiDomenico, executive director of Monroe County Commercial Fishermen Inc.
The season, which continues through May 15, yields about 3-million pounds of claws per year, worth at least $50-million, DiDomenico said.
The stone crab is the state's only renewable commercial fishing resource. Legal-size claws are twisted off and the crab is returned to the water to grow new extremities.