May 12, 2014 — Florida's commercial stone crab harvesting doesn't officially end until midnight Friday, but the season essentially has been finished for some time for Capt. Mike Birren.
Birren pulled most of his traps weeks ago because there was no point in heading two hours into the Gulf Of Mexico only to lose more money.
For the past two seasons, the fertile waters that once provided Birren and the crew of his 48-foot fishing boat, the Brandi Lee, with upward of 600 pounds of claws per trip have been in a serious slump. Nowadays, he's lucky to haul in 100 pounds.
"It's been pretty bad," Birren said last week. "Whether it was octopuses getting them or bad weather, I don't know. They just weren't there."
For Birren, who has made his living as a crabber for more than 30 years, two bad seasons in a row is practically unthinkable. He tried everything, from moving his traps farther offshore to trying different bait. His best haul was in January, when he landed 300 pounds of claws in a single haul. Most of his other outings didn't come close.
Birren's sister-in-law, Kathy Birren, who owns Hernando County's largest commercial processing facility for stone crab claws, estimates that catches are down by 40 percent over last year, and as much as 60 percent from normal harvest levels. The continuing strain on the local industry has forced several commercial boat operators to consider leaving the area to try their luck somewhere else.
"It's frustrating, because there's not much you can do to improve it," Kathy Birren said. "If the crabs aren't around to catch, you're pretty much out of luck."
Biologists who study the crustaceans say that the stone crab population tends to be cyclical. Like a number of saltwater species, variables in weather, food availability and the invasion of predators such as octopuses often cause the creatures to move from one area to another. And while Hernando County's waters may be in a lull, several other areas of the state posted respectable catches this season.
Read the full story at the Tampa Bay Times