Dungeness Crab

Ranging from California's Channel Islands to Adak, Alaska, Dungeness crab were first harvested by daring sportsmen using homemade pots. It was certainly a brave soul who first decided to capture and eat this well-armored, bottom-dwelling, fierce-looking sea creature.

But the payoff justified the risk, as many learned, Dungeness crab were delicious, luscious, palatable, tasty - darn good to eat. From 1855 to the early 1930's folks in Puget Sound didn't boast about their culinary bravery and new-found taste sensation. But time and the influx of people into the great Northwest let the crab out of the pot. Bigger pots were constructed, larger vessels were used, and soon the first commercial fishery developed off Dungeness, Washington, a small logging and fishing town in the Olympic Peninsula along the Straight off Juan de Fuca.