The time has come that fans of one delectable treat dread each year – stone crab season comes to an end on Monday. Across the state, traps will be pulled in at midnight to allow crabs to multiple until the next season.
Before you run out and make sure to grab your last fresh batch for dinner tonight – don’t forget the mustard – here are six some fun facts you may not have known about the yummy treat.
- Stone crab season runs from October 15th to May 15th.
- An amazing 98 percent of all stone crabs are caught in the waters off both Florida’s east and west coast.
- Only the claw, which must be at least two and three quarters inches in length, is harvested and the rest of the crab is put back in the water so that it may regrow the tasty limb, which takes one year to do.
- Most crabs are actually “right clawed” as the crusher claw is usually on that side.
- An average of between two and 3.5 million crabs have been caught each year dating back to the 1980’s.
- At Joe’s Stone Crab, the iconic location on Miami Beach that has been serving the delicacy for over a century, prices can range from between $30 for a small order to $60 for a large depending on market price.
