Stone Crab - Menippe Mercenaria

One of Florida's most prized seafood delicacies, claws will be available a beginning October 15. Stone crab season opens October 15 each year and runs through May 15.

The majority of Florida stone crab claws are commercially harvested off the southern tip of Florida’s peninsula from Sarasota to Fort Lauderdale. Stone crabs are harvested for their mouth watering claws and only the claws of the stonecrab are removed. The stone crab is then returned to the water where it will regenerate new claws within 18 months.

Stone crab claws are cooked immediately after harvest, and sold either fresh cooked or frozen. Fresh cooked stonecrab can be eaten within three to four days if packed in ice or stored in the coldest part of a refrigerator. Be sure to freeze only claws that are completely intact and free from cracks in the shell. The thick shell will protect the meat for up to six months in a home freezer. Thaw the claws in the refrigerator, allowing 12 to 18 hours for them to thaw completely. The quality will be compromised if they are thawed under running water or at room temperature.

The sweet-tasting meat of Florida stone crab claws is delicious unseasoned, with melted butter or your favorite sauce. To crack the shell, use a crab cracker, a tool you can purchase at your local kitchen supply or department store, or the back of a heavy spoon. Remove the cracked shell pieces, leaving the meat attached to the moveable pincer. Don’t forget there is plenty of delicious meat in the knuckle of the claw. The meat can also be picked from the claws and used as an ingredient in other recipes.

These popular crabs are captured in baited traps. No spears or hooks are allowed. Four inches from the first joint to the tip is the minimum legal size, that's about two ounces. A colossal can weigh 25 ounces or more. The large crusher claw can exert extreme pressure. Although their large claws serve as deterents to most predators, fishermen have reported the stone crab falls prey to the octopus. Stone crab season in Florida runs from October 15th to May 15. Stonecrabs exhibit carnivorous feeding behavior. Sometimes in traps they resort to cannibalism! The claws make up half the weight of the whole crab, they are removed by carefully grabbing from the rear and twisting. Only one claw may be removed so the crab can defend itself. Egg bearing females are not allowed to be declawed. The crab is returned to water and the claw regenerates. It takes between 12 to 24 months to reach legal size again.

Several species of stone crab are found from North Carolina to Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, but more than 90 percent of the catch is the common stone crab, which is fished in Florida waters from October to May. Although stone crab is fished along much of Florida's coast, most landings occur off the southern half of Florida's west coast.

In about one year, a larger stonecrab can regenerate a claw that's about two-thirds its original size. A smaller crab can take three years to grow a claw that just meets the legal market size. Surveys of crab buyers indicate that about 20 percent of the claws purchased from fishermen are from crabs that had already been declawed once.
www.seafoodchoices.net/seasense/stonecrab.shtml
www.fl-seafood.com
Menippe Mercenaria

Also see:
• Fresh Fish
• Spiny Lobster

Stone Crab (Menippe Mercenaria)