🦀 Catch your own
Shellfish & crustaceans
Some of the best eating on the coast never takes a rod. Drop a trap for crab or lobster, throw a cast net for shrimp, rake a flat for clams, or pick oysters and mussels off the rocks at low tide. Pick a species below to see what it gives you, how it is caught, the gear and season - and the one thing that matters more than any of it: harvesting only from clean, open, legal water.
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Read this before you gather anything
Clams, oysters, mussels and other filter feeders concentrate bacteria and natural biotoxins (red tide / PSP) from the water they live in. Harvesting from closed or polluted waters can make you seriously ill. Always check your area's shellfish status and any health advisory first - it takes a minute and it is the whole game.
Shellfish safety & the rules →🦀 Crustaceans
Crabs, lobsters, crayfish and shrimp - caught in baited traps, by hand, or with a cast net.
🦀 Beginner Blue Crab
The classic backyard crab of the US East and Gulf coasts, blue crabs are caught from…
🦀 Beginner Dungeness Crab
The prize crab of the US West Coast, caught from piers and small boats with pots and…
🦀 Intermediate Stone Crab
A uniquely sustainable fishery: you keep one legal-size claw and return the live crab…
🦀 Advanced Snow Crab
A cold-water, deep-dwelling crab prized for its long legs full of sweet, snowy-white…
🦀 Advanced King Crab
The giant of the crab world, with enormous spiny legs full of rich meat. King crab is…
🦀 Intermediate Jonah Crab
A rugged Atlantic crab with heavy claws, often caught as a bonus in lobster pots or…
🦞 Intermediate American Lobster
The iconic clawed lobster of the cold North Atlantic, caught in baited traps set on…
🦞 Intermediate Spiny Lobster
The clawless, spiny lobster of warm waters, hunted by hand while free-diving or…
🦞 Beginner Crayfish (Crawfish)
Freshwater mini-lobsters caught in streams, ponds and ditches with cheap baited traps…
🦐 Intermediate Shrimp (Cast-net)
Catching your own shrimp with a cast net over tidal creeks and estuaries is a coastal…
🦀 Beginner Green Crab
An invasive shore crab that has spread along both US coasts, the green crab is small…
🦀 Beginner Red Rock Crab
A hardy Pacific-coast rock crab with sweet, dense meat, especially in its heavy claws.…
🦀 Beginner Atlantic Rock Crab
The Atlantic cousin of the rock crab, a small brown-shelled crab of the Northeast coast…
🦀 Advanced Tanner Crab
A close relative of the snow crab, the Tanner crab is a deep, cold-water…
🦐 Intermediate Mantis Shrimp
A striking, powerful crustacean of shallow flats, the mantis shrimp is a delicacy in…
🦐 Advanced Spot Prawn
The largest and sweetest of the Pacific prawns, the spot prawn is a cold, deep-water…
🦐 Beginner Mole Crab (Sand Flea)
Better known to surf anglers as sand fleas, mole crabs are small burrowing crustaceans…
🦐 Intermediate Ghost Shrimp
Pale, soft-bodied burrowing shrimp of the tidal flats, ghost shrimp are one of the…
🦞 Intermediate Slipper Lobster
A flat, clawless relative of the spiny lobster, the slipper lobster hides in reef…
🦪 Advanced Gooseneck Barnacle
A gourmet delicacy known as percebes, gooseneck barnacles cling in clusters to… 🦀 Beginner
Kelp Crab
A spider-like Pacific crab that clings to kelp, pilings and jetties, the kelp crab is… 🦐 Advanced
Rock Shrimp
A hard-shelled deep-water shrimp with sweet, firm, lobster-like meat, the rock shrimp… 🦐 Advanced
Coonstripe Shrimp
A striped Pacific pot shrimp, the coonstripe is caught in baited traps alongside spot… 🦀 Beginner
Fiddler Crab
Small marsh crabs, the males with one oversized claw, fiddler crabs swarm the mud flats… 🦀 Beginner
Asian Shore Crab
A small striped-legged invasive crab that has overrun rocky shores of the US Northeast,…🦪 Bivalves
Clams, oysters, mussels and scallops - raked, dug or picked from flats and reefs at low tide.
🦪 Beginner Hard Clam (Quahog)
The quahog is the workhorse clam of the US East Coast, raked or trod from sandy-mud…
🦪 Intermediate Soft-shell Clam (Steamer)
The classic New England steamer, dug from soft mudflats at low tide. They betray…
🦪 Intermediate Razor Clam
Long, blade-shaped clams that dig astonishingly fast, so speed is everything. On…
🦪 Advanced Geoduck
The giant burrowing clam of the Pacific Northwest, famous for its long neck and its…
🦪 Beginner Eastern Oyster
Wild Eastern oysters cluster on intertidal reefs and brackish bars, picked or tonged by…
🦪 Beginner Pacific Oyster
The large, frilly-shelled Pacific oyster is picked by hand off rocks and flats at low…
🦪 Beginner Bay Scallop
Small, sweet bay scallops live in shallow eelgrass beds and are gathered by wading or…
🦪 Advanced Sea Scallop
The big, restaurant-grade scallop lives in deeper offshore water and is mostly a…
🦪 Beginner Blue Mussel
Blue mussels blanket intertidal rocks, pilings and jetties, and a good feed is just a…
🦪 Beginner Cockle
Cockles are small, heart-shaped clams that sit just under the surface of sandy flats,…
🦪 Beginner Manila Clam
An introduced but now abundant Pacific clam that lives shallow in gravelly flats, the…
🦪 Intermediate Butter Clam
A large, firm Pacific clam that lives deeper than a Manila, the butter clam is rich and…
🦪 Intermediate Atlantic Surfclam
A large clam of open, wave-swept beaches, the Atlantic surfclam is the source of clam…
🦪 Intermediate Pismo Clam
A large, prized clam of Pacific surf beaches, the Pismo clam was once so abundant it…
🦪 Advanced Gaper Clam
Also called horse or blue clams, gaper clams are big bay clams that burrow deep in…
🦪 Beginner California Mussel
The big wild mussel of the Pacific coast, the California mussel clusters thickly on…
🦪 Beginner Ribbed Mussel
A tough mussel of the salt marsh, the ribbed mussel half-buries itself among cordgrass…
🦪 Beginner Calico Scallop
A small, mottled scallop of warm shallow bottoms, the calico scallop is gathered like…
🦪 Beginner Coquina Clam
Tiny, brightly coloured clams of the beach swash zone, coquinas burrow by the thousand…
🦪 Intermediate Jackknife Clam
A long, narrow, fast-burrowing clam of sand and mud flats, the jackknife or razor-type… 🦪 Beginner
Purple Varnish Clam
An introduced but now abundant Pacific Northwest clam with a glossy purple-tinged… 🦪 Advanced
Mahogany Clam
A cold-water clam of the deeper North Atlantic subtidal, the mahogany clam (ocean… 🦪 Intermediate
Pen Shell
A large fan-shaped clam that stands buried point-down in seagrass and sand, the pen…🐙 Squid, Snails & More
Squid, octopus, whelks, periwinkles, abalone and sea urchins - jigged, hand-gathered or dived.
🦑 Beginner Squid (Jigging)
Squid are jigged from lit piers and boats after dark when the runs are on, drawn to…
🐙 Intermediate Octopus
Octopus hide in rocky dens and holes, betrayed by piles of empty shells at the…
🐚 Beginner Whelk / Conch
Whelks and conchs are large sea snails gathered by hand from rocks and flats or caught…
🐚 Beginner Periwinkle
Periwinkles are the little dark sea snails covering intertidal rocks and seaweed,…
🐚 Advanced Abalone
Abalone are large, single-shelled sea snails clamped to cold rocky reefs, prised free…
🌰 Intermediate Sea Urchin
The spiny sea urchin holds uni - the rich, briny roe prized in sushi. Gathered by hand…
🐚 Intermediate Queen Conch
The big pink-shelled sea snail of the tropics, queen conch is the celebrated 'lambi' of…
🦑 Beginner Cuttlefish
A cousin of the squid with a broad, flattened body and an internal cuttlebone, the…
🐚 Beginner Moon Snail
A big round predatory sea snail that plows through the flats hunting clams, the moon… 🐚 Beginner
Limpet
Cone-shaped snails that clamp tight to intertidal rock, limpets are a traditional… 🐚 Intermediate
Chiton
Armoured, oval mollusks with eight overlapping plates, chitons cling to intertidal rock… 🐚 Intermediate
Sea Cucumber
A soft, sausage-shaped bottom dweller, the sea cucumber is a high-value delicacy in… 🐚 Intermediate
Channeled Whelk
A large predatory sea snail of sandy bays, the channeled whelk is the classic… 🐚 Intermediate
Knobbed Whelk
The largest whelk of the US East Coast, the knobbed whelk carries a heavy, knob-spired… 🐚 Beginner
Turban Snail
Sturdy, top-shaped snails of Pacific rocky shores and kelp beds, turban snails graze… 🐚 Beginner
Slipper Limpet
Curved, slipper-shaped snails that stack up in chains on shells and stones, slipper… 🐚 Intermediate
Keyhole Limpet
A larger cone-shaped limpet with a small hole at the peak, the keyhole limpet clamps to… 🦑 Beginner