'Super colossal' stone crabs redefine Florida's harvest season

SAN CARLOS ISLAND, Fla. (WINK)—Stone crab season is winding down, but crabbers are reeling in some big wins before it does.

Markets and crabbers say they can't believe some of these claws are real, to the point where they basically had to invent a new size category for them. WINK News reporter Bridget Bruchalski spoke with local crabbers and markets near San Carlos Island.

Jayden Stabile of Big Daddy's Shrimp Market described the stone crab.

"It's very good," Stabile said. "I could definitely eat it a lot."

Stabile explained the taste and texture of stone crab. "It's very sweet," Stabile said. "If you've had snow crab and stone crab, it's a little bit sweeter… In the whole stone crab claw, there's meat throughout the whole thing. So it's very good."

When it comes to size, you typically have medium, large, and colossal. But this year is different.

"This was pretty much the best stone crab season I've ever seen," said Matthew Pless, a commercial fisherman and stone crabber.

Pless says it's one for the books.

"The size of the claws and the number of claws that came in was absolutely unbelievable," Pless said.

Pless explained the new sizing system. "We weigh every individual claw according to the size, and we space them for medium, large, jumbo, colossal," Pless said. "And then this year we have a colossal, colossal, which is pretty cool."

Some claws reached record-breaking weights.

"We've had some that are like 12, 13, 14-ounce claws," Pless said. "That's almost one pound per claw."

The pricing reflects the exceptional quality of this season's catch.

"Our biggest is $59.95 per pound, which you get one to three claws in a pound," Pless said. "Last year our colossal size was around $60 to $70 a pound."

 While that may sound pricey for some, about six years ago, the colossal were $90 a pound.

"So compared to that and this year, even between last year, it went down," Pless said.

Stone crab season wraps up May 1. While things have slowed down, crabbers say warmer waters could mean one last surge before the final day.