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Post by glennkoks on Jan 15, 2018 14:17:02 GMT
Not really agriculture but somewhat related.
Blue Crabs (Callinectes sapidus).
One of the things I do is build crab traps for both the commercial and recreational crab fishery here in Texas. I have about 11 commercial crab fishermen that buy traps from me. Long story short, the blue crab buries up in the mud and becomes dormant when the water temperature drops below about 60 F. Back in the 1970's most fishermen simply picked up their traps about Thanksgiving and went into more profitable ventures like oystering or commercial fishing for the rest of the winter.
Since then the winters have become milder and many commercial crab fishermen have been able to make a decent living running their traps two or three times a week all winter long. Not so this year. I have received multiple calls from my "crabbers" who made the unwise decision to fish all winter. Many of them were not commercially crab fishing during the 1970's and never experienced a truly cold winter. Very, very few crabs have been caught since it snowed here on December 8th. Bank accounts are low and boats remain tied to the dock. Hopefully just a cold winter and not a series of them.
Reminds me of the words my late great father used to utter in October on some years. "It's going to be a long cold winter".
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