It’s Enough to Make You Crabby

The course of a crab season rarely runs smooth. Either there aren’t enough crabs or, if there are enough, the price is so low that crabbers go on strike. And then there’s this year, when it looks as though there might be enough crabs and everyone is ready to work, but the water is so rough that only the biggest boats can safely venture out to the ocean.

As a result, nobody knows for sure what is going on.

“There are about four or five balls that have to line up to make a good crab season,” says Nick Furman, director of the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission. “Most of them are lined up this year, but the weather is the one ball that hasn’t lined up. It’s been a spotty and staggered start.”

On the West Coast, the main crab season usually begins at the end of November or the start of December. For Northern California (Fort Bragg and north), Oregon and Washington, the start date is Dec. 1. Crabbers around the San Francisco Bay begin two weeks earlier. Alaskans crab from spring to fall, when the others aren’t working.

Traditionally, Washington is the center of the crab industry. The average catch there over the last 10 years has been about 15 million pounds. Oregon and California average around 10 million each.

Last year, though, California was the exception to an otherwise bleak season. Despite being at the southern limit of the crab’s habitat, California crabbers pulled more than 11 million pounds. Washington had only about 8.5 million and Oregon suffered with 7 million.

As you can tell, crab is an erratic harvest, susceptible to a wide variety of influences. The last two years have been down. Last year was bad with a total catch of only 27 million pounds. The year before was worse, only 20 million. The average is about 35 million.

“When we say we’re looking for a good year, what we really mean is getting back to average,” says Furman.

Most of the Dungeness crab that is harvested is cooked before it comes to market. Though buying cooked crab is convenient, it puts you at the mercy of the grocer, since there is no way to tell a crab that was cooked a day ago from one that was cooked a week ago. Certainly, a crab should smell fresh and it should be heavy for its size, but those are vague indicators.

You’re more likely to have good luck by buying live crab. Buy from a place that has good turnover and that caters to a knowledgeable clientele. Look for crabs that are vigorous and feisty. Reject any that are exceptionally light in color or that have papery shells. Those signs indicate that the crab has only recently finished molting and isn’t back up to full weight.

Prices for live crab vary widely, so it pays to shop around. Last week they ranged from more than $9 a pound in supermarkets to less than $4 a pound in Chinatown.