April 20, 2020 — Ernie Piton and his crew unloaded traps filled with stone crab claws at a Key Largo dock Wednesday afternoon.
The claws were placed in two large steel vats and steamed by propane heat before Piton’s sons, Travis and Ernie III, iced them down and spread them on a white cleaning table to be sorted.
This day’s haul was a good catch — hundreds of claws ranging in size from large to “colossal.”
But this was among the last trips the crew of the Risky Business II will make this season to harvest the Florida delicacy. With restaurants mostly closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, Piton and most other Keys commercial anglers are calling it an early season, which is scheduled to end May 10.
Piton, 54, has been in the lobster and crab business for nearly 40 years and is among the most successful operators in the Keys. He said he’ll be able to weather the pandemic, but he feels for the many other commercial anglers who won’t.
“Fishing is like farming,” he said. “You have to plan ahead.”