By Kent Priestley

• Introduction
• Peelers Few & Far Between
• Caught in the Act
• The Rising Demand for Soft Crabs
• Download the article as a

The rising demand for soft crabs

Not many local people were shedding crabs when Rippons moved his family to nearby East Lake in 1973. Times have changed, and with them the demand for soft crabs. “It’s a big thing anymore. Used not to be, but it is now,’’ Rippons says. The family’s docks are crowded with more than 100 shedders, capable of holding up to 50,000 peelers during the peak season. They’ll keep shedding crabs until well into fall (“enough to keep the pumps running,” Benny says), but seldom again see the abundance of the first spring and summer runs.

Most of the catch is shipped north, to buyers in Baltimore and New York City. Sizes range from smaller soft crabs, called “primes,” to “jumbos.” Topping the list are “slabs” or “whales” — big jimmies whose shells measure 6 inches or more across.

There’s opportunity in soft crabs, and it doesn’t take many peelers — three or four to a pot each day — for a crabber to cover costs. More than that is money in the bank. Benny says he draws 40 percent of his annual income from the tender harvest.

Coaxing a living from the water, by nature’s rules, is hardly easy. But crabs keep the Rippons family together, working side-by-side daily at their Manns Harbor enterprise. Benny’s daughter, Lisa, manages the business office and keeps all the commercial accounts straight, and his wife, Diana, is secretary. Grandkids pitch in where needed, along the docks or on the water.

It’s clear what keeps them crabbing. “You’ve got to love it,’’ Benny says. “Nobody can make it in this racket unless they love it.’’