I have fond memories of standing on piers around the British coastline with a bucket of seawater and a bag of bacon rinds or pieces of squid, leaning over the side holding a baited crab line full of hope that this time they wouldn’t all let go as soon as the line cleared the water. Back then the crabbing was just for fun, I don’t think that I had ever tried the meat, only the imitations of crab meat which shops call seafood sticks. Despite this being just one activity that we would do on holiday by the coast, it has always stuck with me and as I have learned more about fishing, crustaceans and wild food it has made me realise how lucky I am to have had even that connectivity to some form of fishing at a young age.
Crabbing has changed
Crabbing has become more sophisticated in the last few decades, we used a sandcastle bucket and what looked like a kite line with a hook and small weight on the end. Simply attach bait to hook and unfurl line until it hit the bottom, wait to feel a bite or periodically pull the line up to see if you had caught anything. I don’t remember the hook being in the crab’s mouth, more just a way of holding the bait which the crabs would hold onto with their claws and then letting go once they felt that they were too far out of the water. Nowadays it seems that nearly every pier sells buckets with jaunty pictures of crabs on them, special nets which have weights and bait bags or hold the bait down with a spring, more importantly – there is sometimes information about how to crab with a conscience.
The crabs you may find
Crabs are crustaceans, a group of invertebrates with an exoskeleton and two-parted limbs, the species which you are most likely to encounter through crabbing from a pier is the shore crab (Carcinus maenas). Shore crabs are generally green in colour with a saw tooth edge to the front of their shell, shore crabs don’t grow particularly large and occupy the shallower parts of the sea around the coast and into the intertidal zone – hence they hang around piers and harbour/sea walls. Their latin name Carcinus maenas literally translates to ‘frenzied crab’ as they often seem particularly angry and are fiercely territorial, a scene that you may be familiar with if you have ever disturbed one under a curtain of seaweed or perhaps put several together in a small bucket… which leads me nicely into ethical crabbing.
Simple guide to crabbing ethically
Crabbing is an activity which I think everybody should do at least once in their life, it’s great fun for children and adults and easy to do ethically by following some simple guidelines. The main things to think about are the impact on that local environment and the impact on the crabs which you catch.
Take your kit home:
As with all fishing, we endeavour to take home every bit of kit that we bring with us, fishing line in particular becomes an entanglement hazard for other wildlife and contributes to the plastics in our oceans – one way to avoid lines getting snagged is to only go crabbing when it is calm and there isn’t much water movement which may move your line and net around and tangle it on rocks or the pier / structure itself. A quick word on hook vs net here – many places now ask for you to use nets, there are multiple reasons why this may be so but the most common is to prevent injury to possible bycatch (such as fish). Nets are also much easier to use than a hand line and easier to find once the tide has gone out if they do get tangled.
Try to not harm the crabs:
Fill your bucket with sea water and refresh it regularly, keep your bucket in the shade so that it doesn’t heat up, and don’t overstock your bucket. This last point is more difficult to quantify as it depends on the size of your bucket, each crab should have clear space around them and if any start fighting then it is best to remove them from the bucket and return them gently to the sea. Once you have finished your crabbing, return the crabs back to the sea with care by making your way to water level with the bucket and gently tipping them out at the waters level. If there isn’t going to be an option to do this because of sea defences or another reason, then you can try lowering them back down in the net (just make sure it isn’t baited or they’ll never leave!) A special note here about female crabs – if you happen to catch a female crab carrying eggs, she should be let go back into the sea as soon as you can. The eggs will be on her underside and look like a spongey orange mass held under a triangular flap on her shell.
Consider others:
As crabbing is so popular it isn’t unusual to find a good/accessible spot filling up with groups ready to give crabbing a good go. It’s a lot of fun to chat to others about their success with different baits and some friendly competition can while away hours, but maintain some distance between yourselves and others, it prevents overcrowding both above and below the waters surface.
Crabbing sems to be a staple of ‘seaside holidays’ in the UK to this day and although there are some issues around abandoned lines and nets, over-full buckets and inappropriate bait being used; I sincerely hope that this tradition lasts (just with a jot more thought)
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