TJ B.
Yelp
Stopped in this weekend for a bushel of live crabs. The place was fully stocked with fresh fish and shellfish, everybody spoke English and folks on the phone and at the registers were fast and friendly.
I like to order my crabs live because I prefer to cook them myself. You also then don't get stuck with overcooked mushy crabs. I called around and Cameron's had the best prices in the area for a bushel of mixed M/L crabs. When I ordered the crabs I asked how fresh they were ("they came in this morning") and confirmed they were all alive/lively crabs...
Unfortunately, I had at least 16 dead crabs in my bushel. I cooked them two hours after I purchased them. I kept the crabs cool, with access to air, so they should have survived just fine once I had them. There is no way I lost 16 crabs in the two hours since they were packed, so either knowingly or unknowingly they put dead crabs in my bushel which was sorted to order.
I don't cook the dead crabs because I don't know how long they've been dead. With crab prices being as high as they are, it's a shame to have so much loss. On the upside, the fresh basket was stuffed with about 75 crabs. I liked that I got an actual bushel basket as some places tend to hand me a couple paper bags or a 2/3 full cardboard box and say it's a bushel... but when you get them stuffed in a full basket, you know the quantity is fair.
Sadly, we don't have a lot of options in the area for crabs. I guess you just factor the dead crab into your purchase, or after they give the crabs to you sort them immediately in the parking lot yourself and get any dead crabs replaced with live ones. That'd be a pain, but is the only way I can think to avoid it. A live crab will either try to bite you, or be slow and lethargic but still keep all limbs close to his body. When all limbs flop loose like a puppet and even the claws are loose when you open and close them...the sucker is dead.
That said, it is one of the only true seafood markets in the area and this is my first time coming by in prime season (summer). The market was a lot more lively that when I've been by in the winter, and as I said, well stocked with seafood. I'd come back, but I think you really have to take ownership for checking the quality yourself before purchase.