July 8, 2015 — LEIPSIC, Del. — As summer heats up, so does crab season.
Local crabbers are bringing in more blue crabs now than they have all season to this point.
“Overall, this year has been better than last year, but these past few weeks have been way better and I think the rest of the summer looks promising,” said Lingo Voss, a local crabber for more than 40 years.
Lingo and his brother, Larry, crab with a few employees in the Leipsic River starting at daylight during the season, which runs from March to November.
The Vosses usually are done with the day around noon.
“It’s easier to get more done in the morning and it’s also the coolest time of day,” Lingo said. “If you come out in the afternoon, it’s going to be too hot for the crabs and they’re not going to last very long.”
The brothers keep a daily log of how many crabs they bring in. After flipping through a few pages they saw that during the week of July 4th, 2014, the largest catch amounted to only three bushels.
The Vosses said on any given day over the past month or so their boats bring in five to 10 bushels a day.
According to the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control’s projections, about 3 million to 3.5 million pounds of crabs (weight includes the shell) are expected to be harvested in 2015. If the yield meets the projections, it will be almost twice as many crabs as last year, the best year since 2010.
To make projections for each year, DNREC monitors the size and quantity of young crabs between April and October at 26 Delaware locations, a process they’ve followed since 1978.
Read the full story at Delaware State News