Via Oregon - September/October 2020 - 46

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Digging up butter clams.
OPPOSITE, TOP TO BOTTOM:
Outdoor skills specialist Jesse
Kane; Dungeness crabs;
Garibaldi's public pier, a prime
spot for bay views and crabbing.

ne of the greatest secrets of the
north coast is just how easy it is to
harvest crabs, clams, and mussels.
Dungeness crabs are caught by tossing traps from boats, piers, jetties, and
sometimes just the shore. You can rent or
purchase crab pots or collapsible baskets
to fill with bait-chicken legs, squid, clam
guts-and throw into the water. After
giving crabs time to wander into a trap
through one-way openings, you grab the
line and pull it back up.
Jesse Kane, an outdoor skills specialist
for the Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife (ODFW), teaches newbies skills
he has mastered over a lifetime of sourcing wild foods. I join him for a harvesting
lesson at the village of Garibaldi's historic
Pier's End. Stretching over 700 feet out
into Tillamook Bay, it is one of the lon-

Shellfish
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gest public piers in Oregon. As he hauls
up a basket full of crabs, Kane reminds me
that for conservation reasons only male
Dungeness crabs, with a narrower strip of
shell on their underbellies, may be kept.
He seizes each live crab and measures it
with a plastic ruler bent to "keeper" size.
He tosses back females and crabs that are
too small.
Pier's End can't be beat for sourcing
Dungeness and lesser-known red rock
crabs, whose meaty claws rival those of
stone crabs. Their bountiful population
means they aren't subject to the same limits as Dungeness. The pier has cozy seating bays, allowing groups of crabbers to
set down their gear and chill out on camp
chairs, taking in the spectacular views of
the bay. Don't gaze off for long: If you turn
your back, your catch may scuttle away!
Via Oregon - September/October 2020

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