…and he can feast for days!

Moving up here to Seattle has opened up a whole list of activities that Matt and I have never thought of. One such activity is crabbing. And not just crabbing the old-fashioned way of setting out crab pots (traps) and waiting for the little buggers to crawl in. Matt’s childhood friend passed on the crabbing method that he learned–just grab the crab.

We were out on the water around 8:30 on a low-tide morning. The water had receded, leaving a shallow layer of water and sheets of seaweed about ankle- to knee-deep. We put on our new aqua socks and trudged through the sludge, sinking into the mud with each step. As we walked further out into the water, we left footprints in the seaweed. It was a hilarous process of getting used to walking through the mud. There was a lot of laughing and slurping of the mud around our feet.

When we got out to where there was more water than mud, we learned the tricks of the trade. Slowly walk through the water and sweep your feet along the surface of the sand. If you feel something hard, put pressure on it. If it’s firm and resistant, it’s a rock. If it gives a little, it may be a crab. (Even with these instructions, I pulled up plenty of rocks that I thought could be crabs.) When you’re stepping on what could be a crab, let your foot up a little bit. If the object pushes up a bit or if you feel it move, keep your foot on it. Then reach down with your hand, grab the end that is not pushing up (the crab will push up with its head), and pull it out of the water.

Some of us wore gloves for good reason. And even with gloves, I didn’t get away without a couple of scars. Those pinchers are mighty strong, and those crabs are stubborn. It was a little nervewracking at first, not knowing exactly how the crab would feel under my foot, or not knowing if I was brushing past a crab that was going to pinch my ankle. Or how would it feel trying to pick up a crab? For awhile, I didn’t feel anything that could be a crab, and I was getting discouraged watching people around me pick up crabs left and right. The next time someone caught a crab, I asked to have it put under my foot so I could know how it felt.

I picked up a couple of crabs after that, but had to chuck them back in the water because they were either too small or were female (there are rules about what you can keep). Along the way, I saw a small (dead) starfish, and a jellyfish that was pulsating in the water. In the end, with 7 of us crabbing, we had 27 crabs for lunch.

I felt a little barbaric, watching the crabs get dunked into boiling hot water. They turned bright red in the water and took on a dull color as they dried in the sun. Potatoes and corn were thrown into the pot, and we ended up with a tasty, filling lunch. We all sat on some logs and feasted on our catch. Boy, those crabs were amazing. It’s troublesome to have to crack them and try to avoid the juice dripping out of them, but they tasted SO good, even without any seasoning or butter. Aside from the sun beating down on us (causing my sunburn, grrrr…), it was a perfect lunch.

Here are some of my favorite pics from the day…