Crabbing at the Shacks

One Sunday morning in early March we got a call from our friends the Kitchens to join them crabbing at the shacks just outside of town (what we would call a cabin or cottage). We quickly got dressed and drove the 15 minutes only getting lost a bit! It is blue crab season here and it seems everyone is catching and eating lots of them.

Izzy and Clint took the first turn out in the boat with Ben and his son Angus. They were out almost an hour and caught one crab! Miles, mom and myself stayed back and looked for seashells. This is Miles favourite pastime when we go to the beach now!

This is a view of the shack from the water when mom and I took a turn at crabbing. Unfortunately we didn't catch anything as the tide was going out too quickly and the nets weren't hitting the bottom. On the good side, Ben's father in law came over in his boat and told us they had caught two and a half bucket fulls of crabs!

You can see how they get their name from this picture. They are cooked the same way lobsters are and then frozen or pickled to eat later. They catch so many at this time of year that there is no way they can be eaten fresh.

By the end of the weekend the freezer is full of trays just like this one. Mom and I were lucky enough to get to eat one. It tasted good but was a lot of work, just like eating lobster. The claws and arms are the best part but can be tricky to get at!

We had a good time, the weather was once again hot and sunny with very little breeze coming off the water. We did get to see some dolphing swimming by the shore while Clint and Izzy were out so that was cool, hope you can see their fins in the picture! Apparently sharks can be in the area at times because fish like the warm water that comes out of the coal plant on the other side of the shore and sharks have been known to come close to the plant to eat the fish. We also saw jellyfish while we were out on the boat so I wouldn't plan on swimming there!