Happiness is Catching and Eating Florida Blue Crabs

Earlier this year, our Poppa asked us if we wanted to help him catch blue crabs instead of going to summer camp. We were excited to go crabbing all summer long. 

Poppa, our grandfather Brian Dunn, has been a waterman for over 30 years and has lived in Naples since 1980. Poppa decided to start a new company in 2020 called BTM Seafood, named after the three of us - Brian, Troy, and Marshall. We have boats, traps, nets, and a growing family business catching and selling tasty, fresh blue crabs and other fish for everyone. 

We start our day early. Our Mom Sara drops us off at Poppa’s house at 5:15 AM so we can make and eat an egg, ham and cheese breakfast with him. After breakfast, we load the boat with chicken legs for bait, lots of ice, and other supplies. Poppa always starts the boat motor at the house before we leave to make sure it works. Then we drive in his old 2003 GMC work truck with the boat in towto acounty boat ramp and launch it. 

 We set about 150 traps between Naples and Marco and another 150 traps between Marco and Everglades City, year-round. Poppa has a commercial and retail license and several hundred tags, one for each trap. We pull up each crab trap along the trap line. Sometimes there are no blue crabs and sometimes there are as many as six. We call this shake and bait. Shaking releases the crabs, and were bait the trap with chicken legs. The crabs are put in an ice bath for a few seconds to cool down the crabs and keep them fresh. 

 Blue crabs come in medium, large, and jumbo sizes. We keep the male crabs and throw the small ones and females back in the bay to keep crabbing good. It takes four to six hours each day with just short breaks for snacks and water.If the traps are dirty, we pressure wash them on the boat before they go back in the water. Clean traps help us catch more crabs. When we are done and if the weather is fine and the tide’s right, we go to the nearest beach and play in the water for up to an hour. 

Poppa always checks the weather and tides before we go, so we can load and unload before or after low tide. We return to Poppa’s place about midafternoon and unload the crabs into the walk-in cooler. Our customers pick up their fresh blue crabs an hour after we return. We try to keep enough live crabs seven days a week in the walk-in cooler. 

Gary Elliott, one of our newest customers, bought two dozen crabs for a dinner party. He tells us that his friends laughed and had fun learning how to eat Florida blue crabs. Everyone thought the crabs were delicious. That’s just what Poppa told us – we make people happy! Poppa is happy on the water, and we had a fun and happy summer with him. We learned something new every day. 

For more information on how to steam blue crabs and an easy way to pick them, check out our videos at BTM Seafood on Facebook and TikTok 

Troy is 10 and a student at Shadowlawn Elementary in Naples. Marshall is 11 and a student at Gulfview Middle School in Naples. Thanks Mom and Poppa for helping us write this story. Mr. Gary is retired and a happy new customer of BTM Seafood. He took the photos.