Florida Stone Crab Claw Season Opens Soon

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — Tampa Bay area residents eager for stone crab claw season to begin don’t have much longer to wait before they can get cracking. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has announced the recreational and commercial harvest season in both state and federal waters begins Oct. 15.

Stone crab claw season involves a catch-and-release practice. The crabs are caught in traps and harvestable claws, only those 2 ¾ inches in length when measured from the elbow to the tip of the lower immovable portion of the claw, are taken. After that, the crab is released to regrow claws.

While it’s legal to harvest both claws, the state encourages people to only take one even if both are legal size.

“A crab that is returned to the water with one claw intact will be able to obtain more food in a shorter amount of time and therefore regrow its claw faster,” FWC explained in a media release.

Claws may not be taken from egg-bearing stone crabs. These females are identifiable by a brown or orange egg mass that is visible on the underside of the creature when it is picked up or turned over.

Recreational harvesters are allowed to set up to five stone crab traps per person. Traps may be set up to 10 days prior to the start of the season on Oct. 15, but they may not be taken from the water for harvesting until the season is under way.

“Traps that are not being fished should be removed from the water to avoid ghost fishing, a process in which marine species get caught in the trap for extended periods of time and are not harvested,” FWC said.

The season runs through May 15, 2017, with a May 16 closing data. Recreational harvesters have a daily bag limit of 1 gallon of claws per person or 2 gallons per vessel, whichever is less.

To find out more about state and federal regulations, visit FWC online. To learn more about properly harvesting a claw, check out the video below.

Photo courtesy of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission