Crabbing Season Opens On Chesapeake Bay

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ROBERT SMITH, host:

The fickleness of Mother Nature doesn't just affect oysters and Wall Street.

Mr. DON PIERCE (Crab Fisherman): Oh, that's a fact. Mother Nature affects the crabs a whole lot more than it does Wall Street (unintelligible).

SMITH: Where are you, Captain Don Pierce?

Mr. PIERCE: Right here off Cape Charles.

SMITH: I should say Don Pierce is a crab fisherman. He's one of the first out on the Chesapeake Bay. The season began on April 1st. How's the haul been so far?

Mr. PIERCE: Well, it's still too cold. Crabs move by the water temperature, and the water temperature is still too cool because of the cold spring.

SMITH: Well, crab season is being watched especially closely this year because last year, as I understand it, there was a worry about the number of crabs out there off the coast of Maryland and Virginia. And so, they ended crab season early. And you, sir, lost a lot of money.

Mr. PIERCE: It was a disaster. I mean, you just can't survive with a bad economy. Actually, we laid people off this fall. With the new regulations on the crabs, we couldn't do much. And the guy that buys crabs is thinking about his gas tank, thinking about his mortgage, thinking about trying to keep his family fed. Crabs are $200, $225 a bushel.

This was a poor man's delicacy, the crabs, a lot of the seafood. Now, it's a rich man's delight. I mean, a poor man can't afford to buy crabs.

SMITH: So with all these challenges facing the crabbers, what are you and the other crab boats doing differently this year? How have you changed in order to make this an actual profitable venture out there?

Mr. PIERCE: As a catcher, you're going to have to come up with a different way to sell your product, maybe cut some of the middle people out.

SMITH: So you say cut the middle people out. What does that mean, just putting the crabs on the back of your truck and

Mr. PIERCE: That's exactly what it's going to mean.

SMITH: Really? You'll be out on the highway selling crabs?

Mr. PIERCE: Yeah. And, you know, you'll get - probably, you'll get a better crab, you'll get a cheaper crab, a more affordable crab, let's put it that way. The only ones that are still left out here (unintelligible) are the survivors. The rest of them have already went up inland and got jobs or done something else.

SMITH: How many traps did you pull up today?

Mr. PIERCE: We fished about 200, not right around 200 crabs. So we've got just about - at market price, it's just about $1.50 to the (unintelligible), $300. And that's just about what it cost us to come out here today (unintelligible). It's better than a zero, but it ain't much better than a zero.

SMITH: Because it costs you that amount of money just to take the boat out?

Mr. PIERCE: And it takes about $150 worth of fuel and $100 worth of (unintelligible). Got two people on here getting $100 a (unintelligible). That means (unintelligible) about $125 in the (unintelligible).

SMITH: So those people who have lost their jobs and are thinking, you know, I'm just going to give it all up and get a boat and go out and take what nature gives us for free and sell it.

Mr. {IERCE: Oh, if you know somebody who wants to buy a rig that wants to go crabbing, you tell them come see me.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. PIERCE: A crabber is a crabber. Yeah, okay, if it sounds good. But you know what? I'm a crabber. I'm not a brain surgeon. And a brain surgeon can't be a crabber.

SMITH: Captain Don Pierce, thank you so much.

Mr. PIERCE: All righty.

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