Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 17, 1990 TAG: 9006170058
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D4 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: FREDERICKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
"It looks like it's going to be the best crab season in 10 years," said LeRoy Newton, manager of Barefoot Green Seafood Market. "The crabs have just finished shedding, and they will be fattened up by July 4."
Pappy Bullock, who has crabbed the Potomac River for 31 years, said he sees signs that this could be a good summer.
"I put my pots out for the first time Sunday, and I saw a lot of little crabs," he said last week. "We can't take the undersized ones, so that means we're going to have some fat crabs in July or August . . . unless we get rain. A lot of rain will mess up the crabs."
Two years ago, blue crabs were slow in developing in the Potomac. The result was record high prices.
In 1988, a bushel of large cooked crabs sold for $90 over the Fourth of July weekend. Last week, a bushel could be had for as little as $50.
Newton is getting $69 a bushel for large crabs. "By the first of the month they should be down to about $45," he said.
Bullock, who operates Pappy's Crab House in Stafford, said he usually gets about three or four bushels a day from his pots. Depending on the availability, he usually charges from $45 to $50 a bushel and an extra $5 for cooking them.
Pete Allen, owner of Pete Allen's Seafood carryout south of Montross, said the crabs were a little slow in coming this spring, but for the past few weeks, they have been of good size.
Allen specializes in steamed crabs and crabcakes, he said, and he employs six to eight pickers from May through August.
At Parker's Crab Shore, a seafood restaurant in Colonial Beach, co-owner Robert Jenkins said a good run of softshell crabs just ended, and the crabs are starting to fatten up.
"It looks as though we are going to have a really good season," he said. "The boat trade is picking up now."
by CNB