By LEILA SUMMERS
PORT ANGELES — Nine-year-old Noah Niswanger peered over the lip of the giant tank and watched the crabs shuffle along the bottom.
The young Tacoma resident, who traveled to the Port Angeles Crab Festival with his parents Saturday morning, tried to lure the crabs to his trap by tapping and poking them to get their attention.
He and his family were among dozens of people with crab-fishing poles lined up along the crab tanks Saturday morning.
All hoped to catch as many crabs as possible in 10 minutes.
The crab fishing derby allows crab-catchers to purchase their catches for $10 a crab.
Each catch also earns the person a ticket to be placed in a drawing for prizes later in the day.
A little scary
Niswanger was pleased to catch four crabs during his 10-minute try, but said the creatures looked kind of scary up close.
“They’re kinda creepy,” he said. “Their claws are real sharp.”
Sequim resident Kevin Kennedy, a Crab Derby crew volunteer and participant in the derby for five years, said an estimated 2,000 crabs are expected to be caught and purchased from the derby.
Almost 5,000 crabs are expected to be eaten and purchased during the festival this weekend, he said.
Last year, Port Angeles resident Jenny Bauman was able to fish in the crab derby right after crabs were loaded from the truck.
The crabs must have been agitated from the ride, Bauman said, because they were quite responsive to her fishing line.
She caught 12 in 10 minutes.
“They have to be a little agitated or else they sit on the bottom not doing much of anything,” she said.
Bauman, who has attended all but one of the past five Crab Festivals, caught four crabs Saturday and planned to take two of them home.
Folks who catch crabs at the derby can take home crabs to cook or pay to have them cooked and cleaned at the festival.
The Peninsula College men’s basketball team are working a crab cleaning booth, offering to clean crabs for a $1 donation.
Kevin Konopaski, a 19-year-old member of the Peninsula basketball team, said he didn’t mind scooping crab guts this weekend.
“It’s pretty simple,” Konopaski said.
Money earned from the team’s service will help pay for game travel and food expenses, he said.
The event fills Port Angeles City Pier with booths offering art, jewelry, face-painting and even a few words of advice for a 25-cent fee.
Events scheduled for today include seafood specialty dishes available starting at 10:30 a.m., cooking instruction by chef Les Chan at 11:30 a.m., crab cleaning and cooking tips from Chef Brian Scheehser at 1:30 p.m., an oyster cooking demonstration by Leonard Johnson at 3 p.m. and more cooking demonstrations by Joy Siemion at 4 p.m.
Live music also will be performed throughout the day near the food vendors and eating area.
