Fifty Fifty

The date crab season opens is set by two things that have nothing to do with each other. One is shell chemistry, answered by pulling pots and weighing meat: the coastal fishery can't open until meat recovery hits 23 percent of sample weight. The other is what a sentence written in 1855 means, answered by a federal judge in 1974. Both are binding, neither can be traded against the other, and this episode lays out both cases on the allocation question without adjudicating between them.

Go look at: the soft-shell check, done properly. Squeeze the underside of the carapace. If it gives, that animal is mid-molt and handling it will likely kill it.