Tim wrote:
Interesting Bill. How does the crab limit work. 140 per vessel/ per day? Etc?

10 per person. 10 in possession. You can gift your limit for the day to
someone and then get 10 more the next day. So if you have a non fishing
wife like I have, gift her the crab and then the 2nd day of a 2 day trip,
you can get another limit. Otherwise, it is 10 max per day and one limit
in possession. We had 14 people aboard. So 140 crab. Boat is 38', 39000
pounds. My boat broke a thrust bearing in the jet drive, and the shaft
came forward tearing up the stators between the impellers and screwing up
the stainless impellers. New stators are $260 each times 2. I could get
the impellers rebuilt, but ordered two new ones, of different type. $2800
for 7 crab. ;(. On the day the drive broke. I would have had limits, but
heavy seas and I cut off one of my pots. So was short a limit and a pot.
Yes the pot stays down there catching for awhile. But is a design where
the crabs do get out when the bait is gone. Plus they have escape rings,
like commercial pots that are tied on with "rotten cotton". A cotton twine
that rots fairly quickly and the rings drop off to allow large escape
holes. Plus the octopus like to get in to a crab buffet. Most are smaller
octopus, but one of the guys got an about 60# one this weekend.
http://vimeo.com/111958653