CORTEZ – In a display of resilience following recent back-to-back hurricanes, both Cortez fish houses are moving forward with the seasonal stone crab harvest.
Stone crab harvesting season runs from Oct. 15 through May 1.
“One boat went out today,” Karen Bell, owner of A.P. Bell Fish Co., responded by text on Oct. 15 to a question by The Sun about the viability of this year’s season. “There definitely will be a season.”
Stone crabs are harvested for their claws and then returned to the water where the claws will regenerate. The claws are a delicacy in seafood shops and restaurants.
The season will also continue this year at John Banyas’ Cortez Bait and Seafood, Inc., according to Swordfish Grill General Manager Adam Sears.
He responded to The Sun by text, saying, “We have gear in the water.”
According to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) regulations for commercial harvesting of stone crabs: “Traps may be placed in the water and baited 10 days prior to the opening of the stone crab season. Please be aware that once placed, you may not tend to the traps until the start of the season, at which time you may begin harvesting.”
A Manatee County Historical Society plaque in front of Star Fish Company references a long history of determination in Cortez and reads in part: “Records show that by 1897 Cortez was a thriving fishing community with stores, a school and other refinements. The fish houses and other shoreline structures were virtually destroyed by the high waters and winds of the 1921 hurricane, but the determined residents rebuilt.”
In order to allow residents time to recover and rebuild from the two recent hurricanes, the 12th annual Cortez Stone Crab & Music Festival was canceled this year.
“We look forward to bringing back the festival better and stronger next year,” according to organizers.
