Allen Leister
The Daily World
Despite the consistent wind and the occasional rain shower, that didn’t stop the hundreds of shellfish lovers from heading out to Westport over the weekend.
For the first time since 2019, the Westport Crab Derby was back in town. The event, which is sponsored by the nonprofit organization WEfish, helps promote the fishing industry in Westport and improve infrastructure in the marina. Although the event saw a three-year hiatus due to pandemic restrictions, the derby didn’t miss a beat, attendance-wise.
“The crowd has been way more than what we anticipated. We sold around 170 pre-tickets the day before the derby but in total, we had about 600 ticket sales,” said Adrienne Jones, one of the organizers for the Westport Crab Derby. “We thought we might get 200 when we first planned the event.”
With more than 900 freshly caught Dungeness crab released into the Westport Marina boat basin, crowds of people gathered on the swath of docks throughout the marina to catch some of the popular crustaceans.
“It’s just nice to chill out with friends and family and try to catch a couple of keepers,” said Mark Phillips, a Westport local, who was sitting at the end of a dock with other derby participants. “Couldn’t have asked for a better day of weather given that it’s still the middle of April.”
While catching a crab in the hopes of eating it may be all the incentive that someone needed to join the derby, there was one motivator that didn’t go unnoticed by the contestants — the chance to win money.
$2,500 total in cash prizes awaited people lucky enough to catch a specially marked “money crab” throughout the derby. The luckiest person of them all was Tammy Smith, whose tagged crab nabbed her an additional $1,000 cash for her pocketbook.
“Never done a derby like this before. I have a place in Grayland that I come out to every weekend, and I thought it would be fun to try out the derby,” said Smith. “I was just pulling my pots up, getting tiny ones here and there, and then all of sudden I got this one with a zip tie around its legs.”
Smith didn’t know what she was going to do with the money; she might use it to fund some repairs to her house.
The derby wasn’t the only crab-centric event in the South Beach area as just a couple blocks away from the marina, the Westport/Grayland Chamber of Commerce hosted the 33rd annual World Class Crab Races & Crab Feed.
More than 100 people gathered inside a big white tent and waited eagerly for a chance to compete alongside others for the chance to have the fastest crab. Whether it was tournament style, kids only, or just picking anyone who raised their hand, the excitement of the races didn’t dwindle.
“I’ve never heard of a crab race before but when I saw it on Facebook, I thought it might be something my kids like,” said Susan Harrick, a Hoquiam mom. “If it didn’t cost $5 a person, I think I would have had a hard time prying them away from trying to play a few more times.”
The rules of the crab races were simple as people could do anything they wanted except touch the crab. While some of the race winners got bragging rights, other races resulted in winners earning gift cards to local establishments across the Harbor.
People were also able to indulge in a plethora of seafood such as whole crab dinners, shrimp and crab cocktails, and shrimp Louie’s, among others.
Contact Reporter Allen Leister at 360-463-3572 or allen.leister@thedailyworld.com
