QUENTIN ROUX / Staff

Douglas Doxsee surveys his first-day stone crab claw haul, which amounted to 66 pounds. He said it would make him about $300 clear for the day's work. With him is his son Riley.

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Fourth generation crabber Douglas Doxsee pulled his boat quayside at Capri Fisheries late Wednesday afternoon on the first day of stone crab season and shook a small bucket to signify he’d hauled in just a handful of the precious claws.

But he was hamming it up for local resident Bud Lamendola, who makes a point each Oct. 15 of going over to the fishery to see how the catch has gone.

Doxsee had actually gathered 66 pounds of claws, an amount he said would make him about $300 clear for the day.

“Not too bad. I’d say it was about an average day,” said Doxsee, who works full-time at the tough and draining job during the season, and finds any kind of job “that pays the bills” out of season.

He said the first day had been pretty rough out there in the Gulf, with strong winds hampering his work on the boat.

Another group of crabbers, mostly of Cuban descent, loaded their vessel with boxes of pigs feet and fish heads to bait their traps the following day. In touch with other incoming crabbers by walkie-talkie phones, they learned that law enforcement vessels from different agencies were out in force as the crabbers headed for home.

There was no resentment of the law on the parts of the men, but the extra delay was clearly unwelcome.

Lamendola, who knows all of the crabbers by name, said he was worried about the future of the industry, and by the same token the future of the crabbers.

“It’s just too expensive,” he said. “They get paid about $7 a pound, and sometimes only cover their gas costs, depending on their catch.”