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Presentation
Start
Introduction
Basic Information
What is a snow crab?
Suggested Reading
Boat P1
Boat P2
Boat P3
Wheel House
The Gear
Getting Ready
Loading the Boat
Setting Day
Setting Day P2
Setting Day P3
Setting Day P4
Setting Day P5
Bait
Hauling Traps
Hauling Videos
Trap leaves water
Emptying Trap
Emptying Trap P2
Sorting the Crab
Sorting P2
Iceing the crab
Other Boats
Off Loading
Off Loading P2
Last Day
Cape Breton Scenery
The End
FAQ

Sorting Snow Crab

Once the crab are on deck they need to be sorted. The trap is pulled to the stern (back of boat). One of the crew baits the trap and prepares it to be set again while the rest of the crew sort the crab.

baiting trap

Washing off any remaining mud.

cleaning mud off crab and boat

The metal object in the left hand is the measure. The back of the crab has to be large than the inside of the middle of the measure (which is 3 3/4 inches).
The large male crab are put below deck, females, soft shell crab, and males smaller than the minimun size are returned to the sea.

measuring crab
large male crab
All of us on deck have a fish pen that we put our crab in. We have to make sure all the crab are upright in the pen or they will die. The crab are covered in a layer of ice. The iced fish pens full of crab will be shown later.
sorting crab

The crab are all counted. This lets us estimate the total weight of crab caught in a given day. We use the average weight of crab from the previous day combined with a visual comparison of the size of todays crab versus yesterdays crab.
sorting snow crab

 
 
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