In our house, food is love, but spending an afternoon cracking claws and picking the meat from a mess of crabs shows both affection and dedication. Arriving home to the sweet smell of cooking crabs and dining on crab cakes made for the best day and meal of the week.

American chef and food writer Tom Douglas shares my fondness for these crustaceans, asking, “Who doesn’t love digging into a plate of crab cakes or going after a chilled cracked crab with crab cracker, cocktail fork and a plastic bib for protection?”

While I can do without the plastic bib, I hope never to have to forgo crabs. The crabs that graced my plate were Jonah crabs, creatures once thought of as “bait robbing pests” by those in the lobster fishery. Some even went so far as to consider them a bad luck catch. Their biblical namesake was also reviled, and, like the crabs, underwent a subsequent redemption in reputation. Jonah’s rescue from a whale’s stomach may give a clue to the naming of the crabs, since with their hard and heavy shells they were rumored to be able to survive being swallowed by a whale. 

Jonah crabs, along with rock crabs, are collectively known as Cancer crabs due to the name of their scientific genus. The former, Cancer borealis, can be easily distinguished from the latter, Cancer irroratus, by size and spines. Jonah crabs are larger with rounded spines on their carapace (shell) and robust claws with dark tips, in contrast to the smaller size and sharp carapace spines of rock crabs.

Living offshore in similar habitats as lobsters much of the year, Jonah crabs are also called sleepy crabs up in Maine and Atlantic Dungeness crabs, in reference to their flavor, similar to the Pacific Dungeness. Most of the harvest, about 70 per cent, comes from Massachusetts waters, with Rhode Island coming in second in landings.

Historically, Jonah crabs have been by-catch in lobster pots and were tossed back as worthless. However, in the last 20 years, the use and value of Jonah crabs have increased dramatically. Between 2000 and 2013, commercial landings (mostly by lobster fishermen) of this curious crustacean have swelled sixfold due to its newfound culinary value.

But with this recent popularity, concerns have arisen. In the past, the Jonah crab fishery was not well regulated for size, taking of egg-bearing females, or daily limits. However, over the last few years, rules were developed as part of the lobster fishery’s regulatory efforts. 

The Atlantic State Marine Fisheries Commission is responsible for promulgating these regulations. Their Jonah Crab Fishery Management Plan allows for 200 crabs per calendar day or 500 crabs per trip in lobster traps, and regulations for non-lobster trap catch (from crab fishing, gill, nets or whelk pots) are currently under development. 

These regulations may help provide a positive future for this delectable marine animal, which I hope will be around and plentiful for many years to come. With these rules in place, I might be able to follow in singer Patti LaBelle’s culinary footsteps. She is famous for her “Make-You-Wanna-Holler”crabcakes, and for her 60th birthday she had a firm request.

“If anybody wants to get me something, get me 60 crabs – one for each year. I don’t want no diamonds, I don’t want no shoes, I don’t want no party. I want some crabs.”

Suzan Bellincampi is director of the Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary in Edgartown, and author of Martha’s Vineyard: A Field Guide to Island Nature.