<p>A "tunneler" weaves the "tunnel" into the crab pot. This is the entry point for crabs going into the crab pot.</p>

Fresh Dungeness crab meat sells locally for about $30 per pound. Crab legs, or fancy legs, as they are known in the industry, sell for a lot more. Rich in nutrients and prized for its delicate flavor, if its high priced ca-ching, ca-ching keeps it off your table, take heart. Long Beach-area resident Phil Allen has a solution.

For a lot less money and a really good time, grab a snare box, a fishing pole and a little bit of chicken or clam bait (and the more it stinks the better). Catching just three 6-inch crabs will yield close to a pound of the edible white gold. Allen, a self-described crabbing nut, can be found, more days than not, out on the North Jetty casting his snare box into the mighty Columbia, where he more often than not is successful.

There are a few variations of snare boxes, but basically they are the same size and shape as a standard rubrics cube. Made out of wire, theres the square box, a bait door and several loopy monofilament lines attached. Bait is put inside the snare box. The box is attached to the fishing pole, the crabber casts the box and when the crab literally takes the bait, a loop snares a crab claw causing the fishing pole to jiggle. The action alerts the crabber that dinner is on the way. A snare box sells for around $5 or like Allens, the homemade variety can be constructed for much less. I could be out there all day, though earlier in the season a group of us regulars have our limit within a couple of hours. said Allen. The limit is 12 male crabs measuring at least 5.75-inches across its underside. The Oregon and the Washington Departments of Fish and Wildlife have websites with pertinent information.

Recreational crabbing is a year-round sport. Crabbing from piers and jetties can be done with a snare box or even a simple net. From boats, crab pots or crab rings are used more often than snare boxes. Though they come in many different shapes and sizes, the recreational crab pot or crab trap (an interchangeable term) is commonly a metal cage about two feet wide by two feet long by one foot tall. A door or two on the side of the cage opens in but not out, allowing crab entry but no exit. Theres an interior wire mesh bait box, an attached rope to lower and raise the pot into the water and an identifying buoy allowing the crabber to drop the pot and leave it, returning at leisure.

Crab rings are made up of two metal hula hoop-like circles. The one on top is the larger of the two. They are surrounded and connected by netting reminiscent of a macramé bowl. A bait box is attached to the bottom crab ring. A crab pot is lowered into the water by rope, the crab climbs in the net to get the bait; the crabber feels the movement and quickly quickly being the operative word here pulls the basket up as the larger ring covers the smaller one, trapping the crab. Ring traps are inexpensive and store flat. The down side is that they need to be checked every 10-15 minutes so that a crab doesnt just eat and run.

As opposed to sport crabbing, commercial crabbing is serious business. First, there is a definite crabbing season determined by the Oregon and Washington Departments of Fish and Wildlife. In season, commercial crab boats spread thousands of crab pots along the ocean floor. Large cylindrical pots measure between 36 to 42 inches in diameter. A 38-inch pot weighs about 95 pounds. The pots are round stainless steel cylinders wrapped in rubber. Two tunnels or escape doors trap crabs measuring 6.25-inches across, the minimum keeper size allowed, and let undersized crabs out. Polysteel rope for lowering and raising the pots, bait cans, buoys, straps and stainless hooks all add up to gear costing upwards of $250. Commercial ocean crab boats have between 300 and 500 pots. We generally loose some gear each year. It moves based on weather, current and swells. Rough seas in 2007 moved some of it down the coast as far south as Westport, said local commercial crabber Bill Rhodes.

Out for the fun of it or crabbing commercially, the end product, the Dungeness crab, is a delicious and valued addition to our coastal bounty.