Catching Dinner at Marine Park

Along the railing on the promenade at Marine Park in Red Bank, dozens of pieces of tied-off rope attached to rudimentary box traps disappeared beneath the murky salt water of the Navesink River.

The object of the catch is the small and abundant, yet undeniably tasty blue crab, a species that’s found in Atlantic waters bordering several states, especially in tidal areas along New Jersey’s coast.

Needing little more than a net, one or two inexpensive traps, a couple chicken carcasses as bait, and just a sliver of water access, crabbing for blues is a cost-effective recreational activity, one that doesn’t even require a license in a state notorious for demanding hunters and fishermen purchase licenses and obtain tags for the very same privilege.

With about a dozen crabbers comprised mostly of the retired, unemployed or underemployed hanging around Marine Park Tuesday, the pastime is a way to enjoy the outdoors, relax, and, of course, catch a king’s feast.

Pulling up an empty trap from a Marine Park pier, Mike Poltorak said today’s not such a good day for crabbing. Maybe it has something to do with the recent storms and the heavy rains, he said. In this kind of thing, he said, referring to a prior week when he came away with four dozen crabs, it’s all luck.

Regardless of what the catch yields, crabbing affords Poltorak the opportunity to get out there and just do something instead of sitting at home and dwelling on how or why work keeps eluding him.

“I like to go crabbing; to be able to get out for the day,” the Middlesex resident said. “I’m unemployed right now and I’m getting really tired of sitting at home on the couch.”

While Poltorak was looking for a constructive way to pass the time, others see crabbing as a way to get their hands on ordinarily expensive crab without having to shell out the big bucks. Of course you’ve got to get the hang of what crabbing entails, too.

For one, crabs love chicken, but using meat is too expensive, plus it gives the crabs an opportunity to pull it away from the traps, which remain open until they’re pulled up from the surface. With chicken bones, rope can be tied through the chest cavity ensuring that it stays in place. Crabs, like most fish, are often more active in the morning and evening, and, of course, an incoming tide always presents better crabbing opportunities than an outgoing one.

Irwin Jackson’s been at this for about two years. The first time he crabbed out on Sandy Hook, however, he didn’t catch a single one. But with half bushels of blues selling for about $70 at the market in Newark, the West Orange resident decided he’d learn to do it himself.

It’s got additional benefits too, he said.

“It’s just something I like to do. It relaxes me,” he said.