Through the Gaps! - Newlyn Fishing News: Fish of the Day - Week 7 - Crab Cornwall UK fish commercial fishing fish cooking and art

Brown crab stocks are relatively healthy in Cornish waters and the majority of brown crab landed to our ports are caught with crab pots, a selective and low impact fishing method. Always look for fresh local pot caught crab. Best choice for brown crabs are those caught using pots in inshore waters (within Cornwall’s 6 mile limit) where minimum landing sizes are higher.

Brown crabs have a relatively low vulnerability to fishing as a female crab can produce up to 3 million eggs each year, they grow relatively fast and use our shallow rocky intertidal areas (of which Cornwall has a huge area) as protected nursery grounds.

The main fishing method used for brown crab is potting. This is a selective fishing method, with very little impact on the seabed. Undersized and berried crabs can be returned safely to the sea unharmed, so there is no problem with killing undersized crabs (discards). As a result pot caught brown crab is one of the most sustainable choices of seafood you can make, even in winter months. The industry has set up a Fishery Improvement Plan for south west crab and lobster potting which aims to further improve the sustainability of these fisheries. In 2019 a total of 2439 tonnes of brown crab were landed to Cornish ports with a value of £7.32 million (MMO data).

Or to be precise

- brown crab, because there are several other species of crab landed in Newlyn...

each one conforming to the minimum landing size across the top of the shell - 150mm for male and 160mm for female crabs...

the bulk of crab landed in Newlyn is transported abroad, mainly to Spain and Portugal by road...

in 'vivier' lorries...

fitted with tanks containing aerated seawater...

sometimes the netting fleet land just crab claws...

the pots used to catch crab are baited with fish like dogfish or very small gurnard...

the largest boats in Newlyn are owned by the Rowse family and there fleet of mainly steel-hulled boats...

but there are a number of inshore boats who use a mix if fishing gear including pots like the Nazarene in this video.

There are dozens of crab recipes - apart from the simplest - the crab sandwich which you can enjoy locally at the Red Lion Inn...

Make your own authentic Thai chilli sauce to go with this hugely tasty crab dish, or cheat and use Nam Ploy if you must......

some of the ingredients are easy to find in an asian shop (like Steve Chan's in Penzance).......

but start with freshly boiled whole crab, this one courtesy of Harvey's in Newlyn.......

to remove the 'body' section push the thumb into the mouth (this takes a bit of effort on a big crab!)......

remove the body.......

and pick out the full of flavour brown meat from inside the crab's shell - save for another day - add to a fish soup or stew........

take off the dead man's fingers - they are not poisonous as such, but being the crab's gills that filter the water they live in - when crabs were taken from close inshore they could potentially become contaminated - but these crabs have come from many miles offshore - apart from anything else they have the the texture of foam rubber so why would you want to eat them?........

crack the main leg sections with the back of a chopper or heavy knife - with practice you'll get the claws to crack across like this every time.......

stir fry the chopped chilli, garlic and onion for the sauce.......

three different sugars used in Asian and Indian cooking - top right, dark brown lump sugar, bottom left yellow lump sugar, top left palm sugar and crushed bottom right......