# Edible Crabs



## Baldy (Oct 1, 2007)

Gday all,

Just wondering if anyone knows much about the subject? Are there any edible crab species in Tasmania? In water shallow enough to lay a trap....not those giant deep sea things 8)

I remember we used to get what we called "spider crabs" in the cray pots, never kept them but they are probabbly the biggest ones ive seen, not real big in the body but long legs. And used to snag/foulhook the odd swimmer crab[with the little flippers] while bottom fishing for flathead. But once again they arnt that big so never kept one.

Are there sizelimits on crabs in Tassie? What size is too small to be worth cooking? Keep in mind I dont really want an entire feed of crab meat but something different to go with flattie fillets would be a nice bonus.

If your reading this Red, I'd be keen to hear your thoughts on it. I imagine alot of the smaller less desirable crab species these days would have been used by the original inhabitants of this great land  

Cheers
Baldy


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## L3GACY (Sep 2, 2007)

I personally wouldnt bother with spider crabs but i have friends that have eaten the really big ones before. I think you'd need a big one to make it worth your effort.


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## sbd (Aug 18, 2006)

The giant crabs you can buy live from the tank in Chinese restaurants (not the muddies) are reputedly Tasmanian, but the only reliable way I know to catch them is to go to Sea Treasure in Crows Nest. They're certainly edible though.


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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## Baldy (Oct 1, 2007)

Yeah those big ones[up to 20kg] come from out wide near the shelf, 100-800m apparently...

Im pretty sure we dont have the big ones in close like the big island but like I said I dont want a whole lot of crabmeat. Its more like those tree ants or whatever they are, Ive heard they have a nice taste but ya wouldnt want to eat kilos of them at a time :lol: Much like alot of bushtucker I guess.

Even I can boil water so even the cooking is hard to stuff up 

The only things im not sure about are size limits and if all crabs are edible?

The idea is to take a small camp stove and pot out on day trips, set the trap and hopefully come back with something to spice up the ham sandwiches with at lunchtime  :lol: I can then take them back out in the yak to nibble on as they cool.

It might seem like more effort than its worth, but I reckon thats the drive-thu mentality kicking in :lol: I try and ignore it....honest 8) But much like yakfishing itself, if it takes a bit of effort its probabbly worth doing 

cheers
Baldy


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## Baldy (Oct 1, 2007)

Doh..beat me to it!!...thanks for that Red, 3000people huh geez thats one angry crab! Yeah mate I would have to be along way down the Derwent estuary before I'd eat any shellfish or even anything that feeds heavily on shellfish/crustaceans.

Ahh the good ol Soldier Crab....terrorised a few generations of toddlers in our family at the grandparents shack :lol:

The next step is what kind of trap is legal in Tas, the only info I can find on it is to do with the giant crabs. Im guessing something like you guys use for the blue swimmers....maybe scaled down a bit?

cheers
Baldy


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## chiefshaka (Jan 29, 2007)

Baldy,

A bit of info for ya. I got myself a craypot licence the other day and was handed a current Recreational Sea Fishing Guide which contains some info on crabs.

Giant crabs are a deep water species which have seasons in regards to both female and male, Only crabs between 150mm and 215mm can be kept with females in berry being released. The possession limit is 1.

All other crabs have no size, bag or possession limits but it is stated that you should only take what you need for a feed. I bait trap can be used but it must meet specified dimensions:

no larger than 500mm x 350mm x 250mm
entrance not larger than 65mm
mesh between 10mm - 40mm

Hope this helps.


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