It is crab season up here. Recreational fishing for hardshell crab was set to open on August 18, but the opener was delayed for a couple of days this year based on the condition of the crabs. Sport shellfishing has a limited season in our area. Crabbing is open Thursday through Monday. All fishing gear must be out of the water on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Fishers must keep records of catch and report to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

I haven’t learned enough about fishing for crab, or any other kind of fishing in the waters of he bay to do any fishing. Our crabbing involves driving to the nearby Lummi Reservation and purchasing live crab from the tribal market. There are special regulations that allow enrolled members of the tribe to exercise traditional treaty rights for the harvesting of seafood.

Local sporting goods and hardware stores all sell crab traps, bait boxes, lines and buoys. People head out at high tide in boats to their favorite locations and set their traps and return to collect their traps later. I haven’t learned the whole process, but I enjoy watching the crab fishers come and go from the shore and from my kayak as I paddle. In general, I don’t paddle out as far as the crab fishers go to set their traps. Most folk who are serious about catching crab have motor boats, though a few have success fishing from docks and piers.

The most obvious indicator of crab season is that the number of boats in the bay goes up a lot. Most are kept on mooring a ways offshore, but the tidal variations around here are significant that boats moored in the bay sit on mud at low tide and are several yards offshore at high tide. I tend to paddle at or near high tide because it is easier to launch and retrieve my boat.

It would make sense for me to learn a bit more about harvesting food from the bay. After all I live right here and we enjoy eating seafood. We have tried to lean as much as we can about local sources of food and try to avoid purchasing too much food that has traveled long distance to reach the grocery store. Since time immemorial people have lived near the shore of the Salish sea and fed themselves with the bounty of ocean creatures that are available. For thousands of years people have fished from canoes and other small, human-powered craft. I’m sure it would be fairly easy to set a few crab traps from our little rowboat. It might be a significant challenge to haul a full crab pot from a kayak or canoe, however.

Still, there is much to learn before I pick up a fishing license. Like other forms of fishing, I’m sure, the best way to learn is to make arrangements to go fishing with someone who is experienced.

For now, it is interesting to observe the way that having crab season open changes our little bay. I’m pretty sure that serious fishers have reserved cottages and beach houses months in advance and take vacation to dedicate themselves to fishing when the season opens at the end of August. The last couple of weeks before school starts are probably the busiest in terms of boat traffic and activity.

School starts in our district next week. It seems early to me to have school start before Labor Day, but from the posts of friends around the country, I can tell that many schools have already started. I’m not sure about the schedule for our neighbors in Canada, but I think that the school year is similar to the schools here in Washington.

I still have a lot to learn about this place we now call home. I know that another popular type of harvesting food from the ocean is digging clams. I’m pretty sure that there are seasons for that activity, though I’m not sure about the process or timing. I know that we don’t see people out digging clams much this time of the year. Right now there is a lot of kelp and the seaweed that is washed up on the beaches. I’ve learned that I need to wash down my boats, paddles, spray skirts and lifejackets as soon as I finish a paddle. The green plants can get stinky and the saltwater is very sticky. Each time I wash one of my boats I am grateful that I don’t have a bigger boat. I don’t have to deal with motors and propellors. My boats are easily turned over to wash the bottom and the spray skirt on my kayak keeps most of the seaweed out of the boat’s interior. I do manage to get a bit inside because I step into the boat and don’t always get all of the seaweed rinsed off of my feet while balancing and entering a bobbing boat in the surf. It is a different process launching a boat here than on a gentle lake in the Black Hills of South Dakota. My canoes aren’t getting much exercise these days. It is much easier to paddle a kayak in these waters.

We are heading East to Montana for a few days starting today. I have my kayak cleaned up and loaded on our pickup. Crossing state lines with any kind of boats means stopping at boat inspection stations set up to help control the spread of invasive species. A kayak is pretty simple to inspect and a quick glance is all that is needed. We have the luxury of retirement that allows us to travel a few less miles each day and be in a bit less of a rush. I’ve planned this particular trip at a very leisurely pace so we don’t have to drive many miles each day and stopping to have the boat inspected in Idaho and Montana will be no problem at all.

There is still much to learn about the place where we live. I’m sure that I won’t feel like a newcomer forever, but for now I’m enjoying learning at a new pace.