Although Florida's stone crab season will not officially end until May 15, talk to any fisherman along the Nature Coast who makes a living harvesting the crustaceans from the Gulf of Mexico and you'll find that the season effectively ended months ago.
These days, you're more likely to see incoming fishing vessels loaded with empty traps than ones filled with succulent stone crab claws, said Kathy Birren, owner of Hernando Beach Seafood Co. In fact, this year's stone crab season, which opened in October, has been pretty much a bust from start to finish, Birren said. Catches at her docks are down more than 60 percent from normal.
"It's the worst year I've ever seen," Birren said. "Some of the guys gave up a long time ago and just decided it was too expensive to fill their gas tanks to go out and bring in 50 pounds of crab claws."
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