Buy Local Fish from Punta Gorda -- Stone Crab Season Starts October 14

I just got home from a trip through Georgia where we stopped by a barrier island from where many local shrimpers depart. There are promotions in the local papers and in pamphlets throughout the town promoting the value of local wild shrimp. Why buy more expensive local shrimp when you can get it cheaper by the pound in the chain supermarket? Several reasons -- it's healthier, its time to market is faster and above all it tastes a lot better. Most importantly, if the local fishery industry isn't supported, it won't be there, and you will be stuck with the mushy, imported or farm-raised variety that has less nutritional value and much less flavor.

I was reminded again about buying local fish when I saw the recent article in the Water Line Magazine by Kelly Beall, who wrote about the difficulty of running a commercial fishing business. "One second you have nothing to sell, the next you are dealing with an oversupply of a perishable product." As she correctly noted, all over Florida (as well as other sea coast states like Georgia) waterfront fishhouses are becoming a memory. To keep them from becoming history here in Punta Gorda, Kelly and her husband started the Peace River Seafood Company where they buy the fish of local fishermen and sell it locally.

In a few days, Florida stone crab season starts, one of the many joys of being here -- a large percentage of these delights are caught right in the waters off Southwest Florida. Every year, the State of Florida has a seven-month stone crab harvesting season from October 15 to May 15. Typically, crabbers use a baited trap to lure crabs, although some recreational crabbers dive for them. Stone crab, unlike lobsters or blue crabs, are a self-renewing source of food, only the claws are taken, then the crabs are returned to the water to regrow their claws for a future harvest. They can do this three times in their life. In the same way that lizards can lose their tails and later regenerate them, stone crabs have the ability to lose a claw without significant or lasting damage to the organism.

This is great for all of us. What is also great for those who happen to live in Punta Gorda is that we do have access to these delectables from the gulf through such businesses as the Peace River Seafood Company. So, do fish lovers and those who make their livings serving this market a favor and go and buy their product, skipping the frozen seafood in the chain store imported from God only knows where.