Kevin Dixon: On crabbing safari - a Torbay tradition

Crabbing is a Torbay tradition.

It is a type of fishing, as crabs are defined as shellfish, but the objective isn’t to consume the catch. Rather, this is a family activity undertaken purely for pleasure.

It takes advantage of crabs not being fussy eaters, feasting on anything they find with their highly tuned sense of smell. Mussels, meat, or fish scraps will do as bait.

It’s consequently an easily mastered and inexpensive pastime. Crabbing kits containing drop nets, weights, bait bags and rope, or just a crab line, can be bought for less than £10. You can even easily make your own crab-catching equipment.

And there are a lot of crabs out there, sixty or so species living around the British coast, happily scavenging underwater just yards away from roads and shops.

Coastal communities have, of course, always searched for crabs as a food source, fishing families relying on crustaceans as a primary catch and making their own crab pots. But for most people, crabbing today is a catch-and-release activity.

These arthropods aren’t for eating.

They’re quite small, so there’s not going to be a whole lot of meat there. Even our largest native beast, the brown crab, is only around 20cm across, and these aren’t the kind likely found near shore. Indeed, we probably don’t want crabs of too great a size. As the movies point out, they can be marine monstrosities, the stuff of nightmares.

Another reason for not even trying to consume your catch is a crab’s eating habits. Think about what those crabs are likely to be consuming at the bottom of Torquay Harbour.

Hence, once captured, crabs are usually soon returned unharmed to the sea. As long as they aren’t overheated in their temporary captivity, no physical harm is experienced by either arthropod or hominid. But we air airbreathers should be wary of those pincers.

But while the crabbing we encounter today is largely a modern activity, it has its roots in the very creation of Victorian coastal resorts such as Torquay and Paignton.

Holidaying by the sea first became fashionable in the mid-eighteenth century when sea bathing for health reasons became popular. Then the arrival of the railway to Torquay in 1848 made travel much quicker and cheaper, and so began the transformation of the Bay’s quiet hamlets into tourist towns.

Traditions then emerged, emphasising the seaside’s unique landscape, flora, and fauna. Holidaymakers bathed, walked along the promenade, collected shells, spent time relaxing on the sands, and explored rock pools. Aptly illustrating the seaside offer was the crab, which became a symbol of the coast and frequently featured in souvenirs, posters and postcards.

For Victorian and Edwardian children, crabbing was a very respectable activity, morally appropriate, enriching, a worthy antidote to idleness, and an engaging way to explore a natural world without being too boisterous. Crabs, when caught, were admired, sometimes photographed, and then released back into the sea.

Alongside being places of leisure, coastal resorts also became centres in which to explore the natural world in a scientific way. Torquay, for example, has a special place in the development of the exploration of the marine environment.

St Marychurch resident Philip Henry Gosse was a naturalist and populariser of natural science. He wrote more than 40 books and 270 scientific and religious articles and a series on natural history. He is credited with producing the first illustrated field guide on marine organisms to help the non-specialist identify and learn about sea animals. He was virtually the inventor of the first seawater aquarium, which opened in London in 1858.

Another pioneer was clergyman, naturalist and author Charles Kingsley, who stayed in what is now the Livermead House Hotel.

From Charles’ coastal explorations came the illustrated 1855 book, ‘Glaucus: or Wonders of the Sea Shore’, in which he wrote, “No wonder that such a spot as Torquay, with its delicious Italian climate and endless variety of rich woodland, flowery lawn, fantastic rock-cavern, and broad bright tide-sand, sheltered from every wind of heaven except the soft southeast, should have become a favourite haunt, not only for invalids but for naturalists. Indeed, it may well claim the honour of being the original home of marine zoology and botany in England.”

Both recognised that crabs were fascinating creatures, inhabiting both land and water, so representing a unique duality. On the other hand, they had very different ideas about where crabs came from. Philip believed that God created crabs as they were, while Charles was open to Torquay visitor Charles Darwin’s new ideas about evolution.

Sadly, crabs have often had a poor image.

For some cultures they symbolise impurity and uncleanliness. In the Old Testament God provides a list of animals that the Israelites were not allowed to eat, explicitly stating that crabs, along with other shellfish, should be considered ‘unclean’.

We also have a tendency to project our own human behaviours onto the creatures we encounter.

Crabs have consequently been portrayed as pugnacious, unreliable and stubborn. Over 2,000 years ago Aristophanes wrote, for instance, “You cannot teach a crab to walk straight,” implying that some things are just fundamentally impossible to alter.

In ‘The Two Gentlemen of Verona’, Shakespeare names a notoriously disloyal dog ‘Crab’. His master laments: ‘I think Crab, my dog, be the sourest-natured dog that lives.’ It was in Shakespeare’s time that bad-tempered people were first described as being crabby.

Then we have ‘crab mentality’. This is a mindset where individuals actively hinder the progress or success of others, often out of envy, jealousy, or insecurity. The analogy is of crabs in a bucket, where one crab attempting to escape is always pulled back down by the others.

But it is in folklore that we see the lasting influence of this distinctive creature of the sea.

In ancient Greek and Roman mythology, a giant crab called Karkinos fought alongside the Hydra in a battle against the hero Herakles. Herakles crushes Karkinos beneath his foot. However, the goddess Hera recognises Karkinos’ loyalty and rewards its sacrifice by placing the crustacean amongst the stars. The spot chosen is a modest one, between the much brighter constellations Leo and Gemini, and we still know it in its Latin translation as the constellation Cancer.

This celestial crustacean mapping had a follow-up in the 1840s when English astronomer William Parsons made a drawing of the night sky and noted a correspondence. He named a distinct luminescent part of space he saw as the nebula "of the Crab".

Perhaps, though, the mythical warrior crab Karkinos and its kind are best known today due to their appearance and belligerency.

In the fourth century BC the Greek physician Hippocrates noted that his patients had lesions and tumours that seemed to be in the shape of a crab. Other Greek medical men further observed that some growths were particularly aggressive and that there were similarities to the animal’s hard carapace. They used the word ‘karkinos’. Again, when translated into Latin, we have the word ‘cancer’.

In the first century Aulus Cornelius Celsus then used the term ‘karkinoma’ to describe tumours marked by swollen veins, which he likened to the many legs of a crab. The terms carcinoma and carcinogenic are with us still.

And, of course, Cancer is the fourth astrological sign in the zodiac. Cancerians are typically born between June 21 and July 22. They are said to be, at their best, intuitive, insightful, nurturing and dependable. At their worst, they are overprotective, temperamental, sentimental and possessive.

Astrology has, however, since the eighteenth century been recognised as pseudoscience and rightly dismissed as nonsense. But then, I am an Aquarian, so I would say that.

So happy hunting. But do return your crustacean captives safe and well to their watery homes at the end of the day.