Start of stone crab season in Cortez is worst in recent memory
To harvest the 1,200 pounds of stone crab for the seventh annual Cortez Stone Crab & Music Festival, which continues Sunday, Banyas had to go as far north as Crystal River and Hernando Beach.
“Except for the blue crab, nothing you’re eating here this weekend is local, I can tell you that,” said Banyas, who is also the founder of the festival.
Jim Gowlett, manager of Star Fish Company Market and Restaurant in Cortez, says a pound of medium claws is going for $15-18 a pound wholesale. He expects the prices to rise throughout the season as fishermen are forced to go farther north. Gowlett says Star Fish is charging retail customers about $21 for that same pound of claws, up a few dollars from this time last year.
To harvest the 1,200 pounds of stone crab for the seventh annual Cortez Stone Crab & Music Festival, which continues Sunday, Banyas had to go as far north as Crystal River and Hernando Beach.
“Except for the blue crab, nothing you’re eating here this weekend is local, I can tell you that,” said Banyas, who is also the founder of the festival.
Jim Gowlett, manager of Star Fish Company Market and Restaurant in Cortez, says a pound of medium claws is going for $15-18 a pound wholesale. He expects the prices to rise throughout the season as fishermen are forced to go farther north. Gowlett says Star Fish is charging retail customers about $21 for that same pound of claws, up a few dollars from this time last year.
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It’s been a tumultuous summer for Florida. The stone crab season opened Oct. 15 and runs through May 15. But lingering red tide, algae blooms, massive fish kills, and warm Gulf waters have all contributed to the slow start and poor harvest this year, Banyas said.
Phillip Gravinese, a post-doctoral researcher at Mote Marine Laboratory, told the Herald-Tribune in October that crabs near the shore and in shallower habitats exposed to the warmer water and high concentrations of red tide organism become stressed, stop eating and die.
