Large Claws a Good Sign for Stone Crab Season

Kelly Kirk is the third generation at Kirk Fish Company, a family business that dates back seven to eight decades. Though she’s just 32 years old, she has a knowledge of the stone crabbing industry that belies her youth. She sees some positive signs for this season.

"My grandfather started Kirk Fish Company in the late 1940s, early 1950s, we’re not exactly sure when,” Kelly Kirk said. "My dad grew up here on the docks. I grew up here on the docks. It’s been in the family since then. The season seems to be starting out decent. It’s so hard to tell this early on. It usually takes a solid two weeks before we can judge what the season will look like and what the catch will be. But from what I’m hearing from the crabbers locally, and up and down the coast, the crabs are healthy, they’re strong. I’m optimistic that it’s going to be a strong season."

One sign of a good stone crab season, according to Kirk, is the size of the claws.

“It’s a good sign when you see a lot of big ones,” Kirk said. "We’re seeing quite a few big ones already. Overall, I think as long as the fishermen are able to make a living and cover their costs of doing business, and people are able to enjoy them all over the world, then that’s a success to us.”  

Kirk’s earliest memories are of the docks at Kirk Fish Company, located on Papaya Street, in Goodland.

“I remember jumping in a fish box with brand new red gloves and unloading my dad’s grouper boat,” Kirk said. "I was probably four or five, or maybe even younger. All the fishermen knew they had to leave the small snappers for me to pick up because that was my job. That’s what I wanted to do. They literally had to pick me up and put me in the fish box so I could get them out.”

Currently, Kelly runs Kirk Seafood Company with her mother and father, Damas and Patty Kirk.

"We’re all a family unit,” Kirk said. "We have excellent staff who have been with us a long time. It’s kind of a family tradition. We’re keeping it in the family with our close friends and family. We have lifelong fishermen who are working with us still. We’re happy to be keeping going. I married a fisherman. He’s a charter fisherman, he’s not a commercial fisherman. But he’s here just as much as I am. He’s getting a taste of the commercial side and I think he likes it just as much.”

Kirk said they weathered Hurricane Ian well. In fact they were able to help some fishermen from Matlacha who were not as fortunate.

"We flooded,” she said, "like most of Marco Island. We’re probably going to see the effects of that with some of our smaller equipment. We’ve already had to replace a few things. But we’re a lot more fortunate than most. We’re very blessed that we didn’t get the brunt of it like they did in Ft. Myers and Pine Island. We actually have taken on two new grouper boats that are displaced from Matlacha. Their fish house was severely damaged. So they were able to come down here with two of their fishing boats that weren’t damaged. They’re going to be fishing with us temporarily until the other fish house is back on their feet. We’re happy to have them, but we wish it was under different circumstances.”

Matlacha is an old Florida fishing village that is part of the Cape Coral-Fort Myers metropolitan statistical area.

Kirk holds leadership positions in the Florida Stone Crabbers Association (FLSCA) and the Everglades Seafood Festival.

"I’m one of the directors of the FLSCA,” Kirk said. "It was formed as a result of some of the regulatory changes we faced a few years ago in the stone crab industry. We felt there wasn’t enough representation for the commercial stone crabbers in our state. So we came together and formed the FLSCA as a way to unite crabbers and make sure that we’re providing the best data possible and we’re working with the state as best we can. We want to make sure the stone crabs are healthy and we want to make sure the industry lasts for a long time. Myself and two other directors of the FLSCA, Holly Dudley and Carrie Doxsee, were approached by the crabbing community in Everglades City, because they are the stone crab capital of the world. They asked us to step up and use our FLSCA 501c3 to host the festival. We thought, what better way to support our commercial fishing community than by the FLSCA hosting the Seafood Festival. It was a great success. It was a ton of work. We’re honored to be doing it again. We have announced in the last couple of weeks that although a portion of our proceeds for the upcoming festival will go back to the local community, like it always does, a portion will also go to the commercial fishing community that has been impacted by Hurricane Ian. We’re going to disperse a little bit of funding to fellow fishermen that need it.”