HERNANDO BEACH, FL – Before the sun was rising and the birds were chirping, Michael Birren was gearing up for a long day that started with an almost two-hour boat ride into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Saturday marked the second day of stone crab season, and Birren, 43, was one of several commercial fishermen to head out into the wee hours of the morning in search of not only seafood but relief. Birren and his crew spent the day not knowing what to expect while sorting through 900 crab traps, removing one claw from the crabs and returning them to the ocean to grow the claw back. Claws must be at least 2 3/4 inches in length and cannot be taken from egg-bearing female stone crabs.
After about a 15-hour day, Birren docked his boat "Brandi Lee" to unload, weigh, sort and steam the hundreds of pounds of crab claws.
Out of those 900 traps, Birren harvested about 400 pounds of stone crab claws, about 200 pounds less than average. At the beginning of each stone crab season, Birren said he normally harvests around 600 pounds of claws out of 600 traps. "We're hoping for more crabs," said Birren, who has been a commercial fisherman for almost 30 years. "We're feeling pretty good about this season – not great but good."
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Hernando Today.