How does crab fishing work

If any underage or female crabs are hauled up, they must be thrown back. One interesting feature found in regulation commercial crab pots is an automatic release mechanism.

In the event a crab pot is lost — maybe a storm or a boat propeller separates it from its buoy — eventually the apparatus a cotton bio escapement panel, for instance will decay and create an exit for any incarcerated crabs. The Trap Is Set Pots make the big catches in the crab-fishing world, and they come in a variety of forms.

Crab-boat captains search for workers with at least some experience on the sea and prefer to hire those who understand how to prepare bait, navigate and operate heavy machinery. The State of Alaska requires all crabbers to have a crab fishing license. Millions depend on crab fishermen to supply their grocery stores and restaurants with seafood. Crabbing captains must be able to navigate boats to locate crab and fulfill orders within strict deadlines.

Crab fishing jobs require fishermen to attach bait to pots, operate cranes to lift hundreds of pots into the ocean, throw the hook to retrieve their catch, place crabs in storage tanks and safely stack pots onto their boats. Fishermen risk their lives every time they venture out into the Bering Sea. Because of this, the cage needs to be MUCH larger than our puny 2 feet by 2 feet by 1-foot crab trap, which is actually one of the larger Blue crab pots.

This will withstand the size and strength of Dungeness Crabs. You probably noticed the bright yellow rings near the opening of the crab trap. They might not seem like much, but these are very important to have on a crab trap. This saves time while harvesting, giving you fewer crabs to measure.

According to www. The only con to this is female crabs of legal size are more likely to escape. You can read www. These overlooked features in a crab pot show you where your trap is at all times and makes it easy to haul it to the surface. You may see in the photo that my string is thin and short, no longer than 10 feet. I do most of my crabbing in a shallow canal, where a long rope is not necessary. Check with the water depth where you plan on going crabbing.

You want a length of rope 15 feet longer than the depth of the water to account for high tide. If you were crabbing in the bay or a river, you would need a thick, durable rope and very noticeable marker. This is especially important in large, public waterways to avoid collisions or find a trap moved by a strong current or storm. My buoy is a small, styrofoam ball. This is perfect for a recreational crabber like me. Lastly, for the exterior of the crab trap, is the latch.

It comes in handy for emptying out the caught crabs. The latch on my trap is very makeshift. It locks with a hook on the end of a bit of parachute cord clipped to some rope. On other traps, this might be a hinge door or something similar. Every good crab pot has one, and it makes harvesting your crabs much simpler. This is the second most important part of a crab pot bait being the most important. The opening allows crabs to easily enter the crab trap, but not be able to leave.

The opening starts low to the ground where the crabs can easily start to enter.