Crabbing

We hope you are enjoying Stromness Shopping Week so far, there has even been some sun - enough to tempt us along to the Pier Head for our annual shot on the bouncy castle and 99 ice cream cone; we have learnt our lesson about the order in which these events should happen!

But there is more excitement to come before the week is over. We are particularly looking forward to the Crabbing Competition, which is a new event for 2012, as it reminds us of our childhood attempts to catch crabs at Ness, which usually ended with the crab letting go of the bait before we could land it. We are sure the competitors will be much more successful at tomorrow's (Wednesday 18th) competition, which starts at 11am  at the OFS Ponds on the Pier.  It is open to children under 16 and there will be prizes for the greatest number of crabs caught and the largest crab caught during the competition.

Competitors are also encouraged to wear crab and lobster themed fancy dress, for which there will also be prizes. It will be interesting to see if anyone manages to claim the £50 prize offered by Orkney Fishermen's Society for the first lobster caught on a handline during the competition. Lines, nets, bait and buckets will be available, although competitors may bring their own bait - for those of you who have a secret recipe for attracting crabs!

The organisers are taking no chances that the crabs will fail to make an appearance, as we note in the competition information that "OFS will be releasing several hundred kilos of green crabs into the basin on the morning of the competition".

For those of you too old to enter the competition but inspired to try your hand at crabbing we have several cookery books with instructions for cooking crabs and lobsters should you be successful!

image from http://www.orkneycrab.co.uk/gallery.php