\n\t\t\t\t\t\tFor commercial crabber Robbie Dillon, workdays are spent on the water. “This is the first string that we’re going to,\u201d he explained while leaving the dock for Pine Island Sound. \u201cWe like to see 6, 7 crabs to a pot.\u201d Between his time in Maryland and in Florida, he\u2019s learned a thing or two about crabbing. He\u2019s been at it since he was a kid. For as much as he enjoys being out on the water, make no mistake \u2013 it’s gritty work. Challenges come with the job. \u201cThe crabs are… they’re very scarce,\u201d Dillon said. \u201cWe work our butts off moving pots every day.\u201d \u201cThere’s always something,\u201d Carrie Grainger explained. \u201cWe’re having a bad season, we’ve got bad water, it’s not good weather, the winds blowing the wrong way, it’s the price is down, the price is up.\u201d Grainger runs the Barnhill Seafood Market in Matlacha, which sells the local seafood they catch. While so many factors are out of the crabbers\u2019 control, there\u2019s one problem \u2013 a growing one \u2013 that is preventable. \u201cAs this area gets more inundated with people, people come here to go out on a boat. They don’t have boating experience,\u201d Grainger said. \u201cThey don’t understand.\u201d And that\u2019s led to more crab traps being damaged \u2013 even ruined \u2013 by boaters. Grainger said they lost 60-70 of them this year. Each costs $50-60. That means thousands of dollars lost. \u201c99 percent of the guys out there, it’s just one man feeding his family,\u201d Grainger said. \u201cWe set on the edges of the channel,\u201d Dillon explained. \u201cIf you get somebody that’s not familiar with the red and the green and which side to go on, they’ll go right down your string of traps and destroy every one of them.” Within the past year, Dillon lost 50 crab traps in Estero Bay alone. As he explained, they have buoys to mark the location of each trap. But with the line, the wind, and the tide, the trap is not always right below the buoy. So, boaters should steer well clear when they see them. \u201cGive us guys 20 feet, you know. Stay 20 feet away from our buoys. It’ll save us a lot of money,\u201d Dillon said. Whether the problem is caused by people who own their own boats, people renting them from local companies, or both, Dillon is pleading for everyone to educate themselves on the rules of the water. For the crabbers, their very livelihood depends on it. \u201cIf we can’t sustain a rig. And we can’t afford to buy new gear. It would potentially put some of us crabbers out of business that have been doing it their whole lives,\u201d Dillon said.DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tSAINT JAMES CITY, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
For commercial crabber Robbie Dillon, workdays are spent on the water. <\/p>\n
“This is the first string that we’re going to,\u201d he explained while leaving the dock for Pine Island Sound. \u201cWe like to see 6, 7 crabs to a pot.\u201d <\/p>\n
Between his time in Maryland and in Florida, he\u2019s learned a thing or two about crabbing. He\u2019s been at it since he was a kid. <\/p>\n
For as much as he enjoys being out on the water, make no mistake \u2013 it’s gritty work. Challenges come with the job. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe crabs are… they’re very scarce,\u201d Dillon said. \u201cWe work our butts off moving pots every day.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s always something,\u201d Carrie Grainger explained. \u201cWe’re having a bad season, we’ve got bad water, it’s not good weather, the winds blowing the wrong way, it’s the price is down, the price is up.\u201d <\/p>\n
Grainger runs the Barnhill Seafood Market in Matlacha, which sells the local seafood they catch. <\/p>\n
While so many factors are out of the crabbers\u2019 control, there\u2019s one problem \u2013 a growing one \u2013 that is preventable. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs this area gets more inundated with people, people come here to go out on a boat. They don’t have boating experience,\u201d Grainger said. \u201cThey don’t understand.\u201d <\/p>\n
And that\u2019s led to more crab traps being damaged \u2013 even ruined \u2013 by boaters. <\/p>\n
Grainger said they lost 60-70 of them this year. Each costs $50-60. <\/p>\n
That means thousands of dollars lost. <\/p>\n
\u201c99 percent of the guys out there, it’s just one man feeding his family,\u201d Grainger said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe set on the edges of the channel,\u201d Dillon explained. \u201cIf you get somebody that’s not familiar with the red and the green and which side to go on, they’ll go right down your string of traps and destroy every one of them.” <\/p>\n
Within the past year, Dillon lost 50 crab traps in Estero Bay alone. <\/p>\n
As he explained, they have buoys to mark the location of each trap. But with the line, the wind, and the tide, the trap is not always right below the buoy. <\/p>\n
So, boaters should steer well clear when they see them. <\/p>\n
\u201cGive us guys 20 feet, you know. Stay 20 feet away from our buoys. It’ll save us a lot of money,\u201d Dillon said. <\/p>\n
Whether the problem is caused by people who own their own boats, people renting them from local companies, or both, Dillon is pleading for everyone to educate themselves on the rules of the water. <\/p>\n
For the crabbers, their very livelihood depends on it. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can’t sustain a rig. And we can’t afford to buy new gear. It would potentially put some of us crabbers out of business that have been doing it their whole lives,\u201d Dillon said.<\/p>\n
DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app<\/a>\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app<\/a> to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For commercial crabber Robbie Dillon, workdays are spent on the water. “This is the first string that we’re…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79535,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[44409,44413,6818,44406,44412,1178,44407,28,30,29,44408,44411,36107,15573,44410,4103],"class_list":{"0":"post-79534","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-barnhill-seafood-market","9":"tag-blue-crabs","10":"tag-boats","11":"tag-crabber","12":"tag-crabs","13":"tag-damage","14":"tag-estero-bay","15":"tag-florida","16":"tag-florida-headlines","17":"tag-florida-news","18":"tag-pine-island-sound","19":"tag-pots","20":"tag-st-james-city","21":"tag-stone-crabs","22":"tag-traps","23":"tag-water"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}