Hallelujah!!! A cold front came through during the night.
It has been an extremely interesting day. We have experienced a part of America that we didn’t realize even existed. Our day started at the visitor center with a $3 tour, of which Ross and I were the only ones signed up for. Our guide was a retired, local “waterman” whose family has always worked in the oyster/crabbing business here in Crisfield. Best 3 bucks we’ve spent so far!
Oyster season is during the fall and winter months so most of what we learned was about crabbing, which is in full swing. The bottom of the bay around Crisfield and the islands of Tangier and Smith, is perfect for crabs during their molts. Eel grass grows well and gives protection to the crab once it molts its shell and grows a new hard shell.
Some of the watermen used what looks like a hockey goal to catch them. He drags it through the eelgrass and brings it up to see if caught any. More often though, the crabs are caught in crab traps. I never seem to get a good picture of a trap that lets you see how it works. A chunk of fish is placed in the center to attract the crabs. They crawl in but then realize they’re trapped. Panic, and then instinctively climb up towards the top where they are completely trapped.
The watermen lead a hard life. They leave around 2 am to start checking their traps. Rain or shine, calm or windy. The crabs need to be 3 ½ inches wide or larger. A waterman can look at a crab and know if it is within a few days of molting. The soft shell crabs are considered a delicacy. Oysters once were the main product, but now it is soft shell crabs.
Once they molt, they are immediately removed from the float and placed in fresh water. This is for two reasons. The first is, if they are left in the salt water, they draw calcium from it and start to form a new shell. The second reason is that crabs are nasty, vicious, little creatures and will eat their buddies if their shell is gone.
It wasn’t but a few minutes after our guide opened up this box to the warm air that they started squirming around.This box is off to a restaurant someplace. I held this crab and it felt like soft wet leather.
These are Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs.
They are not molting and the entire basket will be put in this steamer. (ouch, what a way to go!) Once steamed, they are cooled and then picked. Picking is done by hand. Mechanized picking shreds up the meat too much.
Lots of waste in a crab. 40 pounds of crab equals about 3 pounds of meat.
At one time there were over 150 seafood-processing houses in Crisfield. Now there are only 3. These women are paid $2.25 per pound for the crab they pick. When they pick 5 pounds, they bring it in to be weighed. Their tally is kept track of on this board. They get a slash mark for each 5 pounds and the remaining pounds are written in number. So 13 pounds of meat is two slash marks and the number 3.
Our guide told us that most canned crab now comes from Asia and is processed in Indonesia. The picking is done in sterile conditions by “women standing shoulder to shoulder and earning a dollar a day and a roll of toilet paper.” This doesn’t sound all bad, as we saw at least one of the workers here without a hair net and many were also eating crab as they picked! Granted, the crab is canned and pasteurized, but…It was amazing to see how incredibly fast these women could pick crab!
I took short a video with my camera. I shot it through a doorway and figured since I could rotate any photos I took, I could rotate the video. Wrong!! So sorry folks, but you have to crook your neck to the left to watch a way of life that will probably be gone from America within 5 years. Just click on the arrow.
This little guy was hanging out at the museum for the day with his older brother who worked in the crab shanty.
After this we headed to the ferry to ride over to Tangier Island. Tangier Island is a unique place in that it has been so isolated over the years that the locals have a very thick English accent and their own culture.
Crab pots ready to go. We learned it’s important to keep the traps clean, so the watermen constantly rotate the traps. They pressure wash them to clean them, or run them through the car wash. No car wash on Tangier Island though.
There are a few trucks, but most everyone is buzzing around in decorated golf carts. No liquor is available anywhere. You may bring your own though.
This message on the wall reflects much of the attitude of the people of this island.
We toured their museum, which was very well done and full of items, photos and news clippings of the Island. One clipping I found very interesting was about Paul Newman. He wanted to film the movie “Message in a Bottle” on Tangier. The town council said no way, because of the sex, cursing and alcohol use in the movie. Newman’s response? “I’ve never been in the presence of such small- mindedness, fear, and ignorance in my life. I couldn’t get away fast enough." What a jerk! I’m sure he was shocked that anyone would stand up and say no to Hollywood on the grounds they had principles!!
We returned to Chrisfield by the end of the day and ate dinner on the back deck. What a treat, it was the first time this leg of the trip that it was bearable to be outdoors.
No comments:
Post a Comment