Stone crabber Jim Miller was wistful as he pulled his last traps out of the water on the last day of stone crab season Tuesday and looked ahead to a long summer without steady work.
"It's going to be tight," said Miller, 60, unloading his boat "Ol Crab" at Kelly's Fish House in Naples. "It was pretty tight all year."
Stone crab claws hold a spot as the most valuable fishery in Collier County; only the Florida Keys boasts larger annual catches. The talk around the docks this year, though, has been about the worst stone crab season many crabbers can remember. Crabbers say they got pinched by smaller claws, smaller catches and smaller paychecks to carry them through until stone crab season reopens Oct. 15.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission hasn't finished tallying up the catch numbers, but so far they show the catch coming in at 593,000 pounds of claws this season compared to 693,000 pounds last season.
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