What can you catch?

The classic backyard crab of the US East and Gulf coasts, blue crabs are caught from docks and marsh banks with baited traps or a…

The prize crab of the US West Coast, caught from piers and small boats with pots and ring nets. A big Dungeness gives a generous…

A uniquely sustainable fishery: you keep one legal-size claw and return the live crab to the water, where it regrows the claw…

A cold-water, deep-dwelling crab prized for its long legs full of sweet, snowy-white meat. Largely a commercial and deep-water…

The giant of the crab world, with enormous spiny legs full of rich meat. King crab is almost entirely a tightly regulated…

A rugged Atlantic crab with heavy claws, often caught as a bonus in lobster pots or from rocky jetties. Less famous than blue or…

The iconic clawed lobster of the cold North Atlantic, caught in baited traps set on rocky bottom and marked with a buoy. Sweet…

The clawless, spiny lobster of warm waters, hunted by hand while free-diving or snorkelling around reefs and ledges. No big…

Freshwater mini-lobsters caught in streams, ponds and ditches with cheap baited traps or a hand net. Individually small, but a…

Catching your own shrimp with a cast net over tidal creeks and estuaries is a coastal tradition. It takes practice to throw the…

The quahog is the workhorse clam of the US East Coast, raked or trod from sandy-mud flats at low tide. Small ones are raw-bar…

The classic New England steamer, dug from soft mudflats at low tide. They betray themselves by squirting water as you walk, then…

Long, blade-shaped clams that dig astonishingly fast, so speed is everything. On Pacific surf beaches you spot the 'show' and…

The giant burrowing clam of the Pacific Northwest, famous for its long neck and its depth - a geoduck sits two to three feet…

Wild Eastern oysters cluster on intertidal reefs and brackish bars, picked or tonged by hand at low tide. Freshly shucked from…

The large, frilly-shelled Pacific oyster is picked by hand off rocks and flats at low tide on the US West Coast and around…

Small, sweet bay scallops live in shallow eelgrass beds and are gathered by wading or snorkelling with a dip net - a fun…

The big, restaurant-grade scallop lives in deeper offshore water and is mostly a commercial dredge fishery. Recreational access…

Blue mussels blanket intertidal rocks, pilings and jetties, and a good feed is just a matter of picking a bagful at low tide. The…

Cockles are small, heart-shaped clams that sit just under the surface of sandy flats, gathered by raking or scratching the sand…

Squid are jigged from lit piers and boats after dark when the runs are on, drawn to lights and caught on spiked squid jigs.…

Octopus hide in rocky dens and holes, betrayed by piles of empty shells at the entrance, and are taken by hand while snorkelling…

Whelks and conchs are large sea snails gathered by hand from rocks and flats or caught in baited pots. Firm, chewy meat that is a…

Periwinkles are the little dark sea snails covering intertidal rocks and seaweed, gathered by hand into a bucket. Tiny, fiddly to…

Abalone are large, single-shelled sea snails clamped to cold rocky reefs, prised free with an abalone iron while free-diving. A…

The spiny sea urchin holds uni - the rich, briny roe prized in sushi. Gathered by hand from rocky reefs and tide pools (thick…

An invasive shore crab that has spread along both US coasts, the green crab is small but abundant and easy to catch by hand or in…

A hardy Pacific-coast rock crab with sweet, dense meat, especially in its heavy claws. Caught in the same pots and ring nets as…

The Atlantic cousin of the rock crab, a small brown-shelled crab of the Northeast coast with sweet, delicate meat. Often caught…

A close relative of the snow crab, the Tanner crab is a deep, cold-water northern-Pacific crab prized for long legs full of…

A striking, powerful crustacean of shallow flats, the mantis shrimp is a delicacy in many coastal cuisines, with sweet tail meat…

The largest and sweetest of the Pacific prawns, the spot prawn is a cold, deep-water prize taken in weighted prawn pots off the…

Better known to surf anglers as sand fleas, mole crabs are small burrowing crustaceans of the wave-swept beach, gathered by the…

Pale, soft-bodied burrowing shrimp of the tidal flats, ghost shrimp are one of the deadliest live baits for surfperch, sturgeon…

A flat, clawless relative of the spiny lobster, the slipper lobster hides in reef crevices and under ledges and is prized for…

A gourmet delicacy known as percebes, gooseneck barnacles cling in clusters to wave-battered rocks in the surf zone and are…

An introduced but now abundant Pacific clam that lives shallow in gravelly flats, the Manila clam is one of the easiest and most…

A large, firm Pacific clam that lives deeper than a Manila, the butter clam is rich and meaty, good steamed, fried or in chowder.…

A large clam of open, wave-swept beaches, the Atlantic surfclam is the source of clam strips and much of the chowder-clam supply.…

A large, prized clam of Pacific surf beaches, the Pismo clam was once so abundant it was harvested by the wagonload. Now closely…

Also called horse or blue clams, gaper clams are big bay clams that burrow deep in mudflats, prized for their large, meaty necks.…

The big wild mussel of the Pacific coast, the California mussel clusters thickly on wave-washed rocks and pilings and is easy to…

A tough mussel of the salt marsh, the ribbed mussel half-buries itself among cordgrass roots along creek banks.…

A small, mottled scallop of warm shallow bottoms, the calico scallop is gathered like its famous bay-scallop cousin - snorkelling…

Tiny, brightly coloured clams of the beach swash zone, coquinas burrow by the thousand right where the waves wash up and down.…

A long, narrow, fast-burrowing clam of sand and mud flats, the jackknife or razor-type clam has sweet, tender meat and a famous…

The big pink-shelled sea snail of the tropics, queen conch is the celebrated 'lambi' of Caribbean kitchens, with sweet, firm…

A cousin of the squid with a broad, flattened body and an internal cuttlebone, the cuttlefish is caught on jigs over shallow…

A big round predatory sea snail that plows through the flats hunting clams, the moon snail leaves a distinctive collar-shaped egg…

Cone-shaped snails that clamp tight to intertidal rock, limpets are a traditional coastal food gathered by popping them off with…

Armoured, oval mollusks with eight overlapping plates, chitons cling to intertidal rock much like limpets and are a traditional…

A soft, sausage-shaped bottom dweller, the sea cucumber is a high-value delicacy in Asian cuisine, gathered by hand while diving…

A large predatory sea snail of sandy bays, the channeled whelk is the classic 'scungilli' of Italian-American kitchens, with firm…

The largest whelk of the US East Coast, the knobbed whelk carries a heavy, knob-spired shell and a big, firm foot that makes…

Sturdy, top-shaped snails of Pacific rocky shores and kelp beds, turban snails graze the rocks and are a traditional…

Curved, slipper-shaped snails that stack up in chains on shells and stones, slipper limpets are an aggressive invader of…

A spider-like Pacific crab that clings to kelp, pilings and jetties, the kelp crab is easy to gather by hand line or net right…

A hard-shelled deep-water shrimp with sweet, firm, lobster-like meat, the rock shrimp lives on offshore sandy bottoms and is…

A striped Pacific pot shrimp, the coonstripe is caught in baited traps alongside spot prawns and is nearly as sweet, thriving on…

Small marsh crabs, the males with one oversized claw, fiddler crabs swarm the mud flats by the thousand and are one of the best…

A small striped-legged invasive crab that has overrun rocky shores of the US Northeast, the Asian shore crab is too little to…

An introduced but now abundant Pacific Northwest clam with a glossy purple-tinged shell, the purple varnish clam lives shallow…

A cold-water clam of the deeper North Atlantic subtidal, the mahogany clam (ocean quahog) has a rich, dark, full-flavoured meat…

A large fan-shaped clam that stands buried point-down in seagrass and sand, the pen shell yields a single sweet, scallop-like…

A larger cone-shaped limpet with a small hole at the peak, the keyhole limpet clamps to intertidal and shallow subtidal rock and…

The small Pacific squid behind much of the West Coast calamari, market squid gather in huge nearshore spawning runs and are…