Natasha Baldin/News Staff
For the last 30 years, second-generation crab fisherman Dwayne Strong wakes up before the sun several times per week and sets out on his fishing boat.
He is one of the few left in Victoria who can call crab fishing his livelihood.
Throughout his life, he’s watched the crab market and demand ebb and flow. He recalled a time when he would sell crabs off the dock to eager locals for $5. Now, since crab has become more of a white tablecloth restaurant luxury item, the peak-season retail price of a dungeness crab is upwards of $50.
With dungeness crab now seeing a resurgence in popularity, Strong’s wife Heather MacLeod, alongside seafood and hospitality figure Jennifer Gidora, are co-organizing Crabben in the Park, a festival that aims to bring crab back into the park setting to promote local, sustainably-sourced crab.
The festival will take place on July 15 at Banfield Park from 2 to 8 p.m., and will offer a dungeness crab feast, face painting, games and live music. All crabs will come straight from local boats just like Strong’s.
Sustainability is at the forefront of the festival, in everything from the compostable and recyclable containers, to the way the crabs are sourced.
All crabs on Strong’s boats are caught using traps that are the “highest level of fishing sustainability you can get,” according to MacLeod. Trap openings are strategically sized to only catch large crabs, and doors are designed to open and release the crabs if the fisherman loses the trap.
While adhering to federal regulations enforced by the federal Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Strong also releases all female crabs and crabs smaller than 165 milimetres to maintain the sustainability of the ecosystem.
Gidora, who has spent the past six years in the seafood industry at Finest At Sea, said from the time seafood goes from the fisherman to the consumer, it has usually changed hands seven times.
“The festival will be one of those times where you’re able to get it right from the fisherman and his family,” she said. “The biggest part is your food hasn’t travelled.”
Festival co-organizers are looking to the past success of the Port Angeles crab festival and said they hope Victorians can bring the same enthusiasm as they debut the tradition north of the border.
“It’s about starting to build that interest where people should know what’s harvested in here and driving their enthusiasm for eating it,” Gidora said.
MacLeod added she hopes the festival can promote the importance of supporting the livelihoods of local crab fishers.
“There are mega big nasty boats that pull in everything. But to have a boat like this with two or three people in a day fishery, this is the good fishing. We should celebrate and shine a light on that,” she said.
“These guys go home every night and eat with their family. This is their livelihood. This is something that should be celebrated in Victoria.”
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