Crabs...what do you think?

Question

I have a soft spot for crab meat. My favorite ways to have it are crabcakes, crab stuffed shrimp and fried crab straight out of the shell. It has a distinct taste, not fishy, not muddy like crawfish, and not sweet like shrimp.

My question is, do you like crab and do you have a problem with the way that crabs are being shown in the media, as a disposable commodity on a level with roaches and maggots?

Where does the disdain come from, and why is it being fished for so much when no one eats it?

Answer 1

Ummm...it is being fished for because the fishermen, or in this case, the crabbers, SELL them to people.

I suspect, but I really don't know, but I suspect that the people buying them are EATING THEM.

Answer 2

I'm actually highly allergic to shellfish which is why I don't mind pointing out that they are actually closely related to roaches. Shellfish is basically an insect form of life that lives in the ocean. I imagine if someone cooked cockroaches for you and put the meat out next to crab and had you do a blind taste test, you may find it hard to tell the difference.

They wouldn't fish for it if nobody wants to buy it, they're businessmen the same as any other and profit from filling their customers needs. It may be that some crabs or shrimp are caught in the course of harvesting other fish and they may dump it if they can't process it. Much like dolphins used to be tangled up in nets with fish, nobody was trying to kill them but it was an inadvertent consequence of fishing.

If populations decrease enough someone will start up a crab or lobster farm and make money from it but in the meantime, if you disagree with the way commercial fishermen operate you'd have to take it up with them or some regulatory agency. I seriously doubt they'd throw out a valuable commodity like crab meat.

Answer 3

i like crabs, i dont eat them tho, if they didnt fish for crabs- there would be too many crabs in the water.

Answer 4

I like crab but, I don't often eat it.  I'm not sure what your speaking of when refer to crabs being shown in the media.  The only show I've seen about crabs is Deadliest Catch and, they make crabs or, at least crab fishing seem glorious.

Answer 5

I no longer buy crabs, for two reasons.

>The exploitation of Crustacean-Americans has gone on long enough!

>I discovered a new source of crabs in my armpits and other places I do not want to mention.  While THESE crabs are considerably smaller then the former ones, they make up what they lack in size by sheer numbers, and they do not have a lobbying group to fight their exploitation.(At least I dont think they do)

Answer 6

Where do you live? I think we have a very different impression here in Maryland-- the crab capitol of the known world. Crabs are our delicacy here. They are so overfished in the Chesapeake, we have to have them imported from the south because they are so popular and so many people eat them. I don't think anyone here would ever see them as "roaches and maggots". They are held in very high regard. When we see a huge pile of steaming crabs coated in Old Bay next to a pitcher of beer, we automatically drool. Even a bushel of fresh live ones is a beautiful sight to most of us. I assure you, there's no disdain here.

http://skipjack.net/le_shore/crab/histor...

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I can't speak for King and snow crabs that you see on Deadliest Catch, but when you say "crab meat", no one from around here would think of anything but Blues, and I can tell you there's no surplus of them around here. There's not enough to go around.

Answer 7

I like to eat crab once a year (crab season in Cal). There are crab feeds put on by different organizations. This is food frenzy to raise money.

But we also crab introduced from the far east that have gotten out of hand here. They burrow into the the dirt levies and undermine the structures.

Answer 8

I haven't bought a lot of roaches or maggots lately to steam, but I love those alaskan king crab legs!!!  Unfortunately, yeah - for some reason they cost WAY MORE per pound than maggots!!!