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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2018
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Personnel at Bell Buoy Crab Co. offload crab at the Port of Chinook.
From
water
to plate
A crab boat arrives at the Port of Chinook.
By COLIN MURPHEY
The Daily Astorian
D
ungeness crabs are showing up in local markets and on the menus of restaurants
throughout the region. And while the boats in the water and the crab swimming in
tanks are the most visible evidence of the industry, much of the activity also takes
place at the docks. At the Port of Chinook, the work resembles a team sporting
event between workers, machines and crab. The crab are loaded into metal bins,
raised with a crane, dumped into large plastic bins on the dock, picked up by forklift and weighed,
then shipped off to a processing facility. The hardest part for most of us is trying not to make a
mess while cracking the shell. But while you’re doing that, it’s worth thinking about what it takes
to catch the crab, to get it to land and to get it from the boat to your plate.
Dungeness crab are put into a container after being offloaded from a
fishing vessel.
Dockworkers with Bell Buoy Crab Co. use a crane to load crab into bins at the Port of Chinook.
Dungeness crab are inspected at the dock after
a fishing vessel arrived with the day’s catch.
Dungeness crab are sorted before being transport-
ed to a processing facility.
A bin of freshly caught crab is moved to a processing fa-
cility at the Port of Chinook.