IT WAS AROUND 9 o’clock on a chilly, overcast Saturday night.
Because of torrential rain the previous evening, there was mud everywhere. The location was Shorey Village, St Andrew, and Keith Leacock was on his way to work at a place residents call The Bay.
His is no ordinary job. For almost seven years, Leacock has made his livelihood sourcing and selling crabs.
Leacock is so well known for hawking these succulent shellfish throughout St Andrew, St Joseph, The City and on the West Coast that many people simply refer to him as “The Crabman”.
He recently invited a NATION team to join him on the job. For one member of the team, it was his maiden trek and he wholeheartedly agreed, thinking it would be an adventure. For another, with a little more experience, she knew that even to refer to it as an adventure might be an understatement.
In fact, it was. Put bluntly, crabbing is hard work. Armed with old sacks, torchlights, sturdy boots and fully charged cellphones (in case of an emergency), the group walked for almost a mile before reaching the spot in The Bay called Funland, known as home to quite a large number of crabs.
But it would not be a case of the crabs automatically coming to be caught. The wait for at least one of the crustacean friends to peep out of any of the abundance of “crab holes” lasted for well over an hour. The only thing biting was the crisp sea breeze.
“This is how it usually happens. This ain’t nah easy thing to do,” Leacock said. “Sometimes I would be up here for four, five hours before I get a bag of crabs.”
The 46-year-old has about three decades’ experience crabbing. It began in his mid-teens when his older brother Wayne and cousin Trevor needed a sack boy.
“They taught me everything I know ’bout crabbing. When I was a little young boy they would carry me crabbing and show me how to hold the crab back, but I couldn’t catch no crabs so I had to haul the big heavy bag all through The Bay and come home by myself,” he reminisced with a laugh.
A few years later, when Leacock gained more experience and could masterfully catch crabs on his own, just for fun he would take the trek sometimes with friends or alone.
After he finished school, Leacock went on to do odd jobs. However, he admitted that was mainly because of little to no guidance. His mother suffered from a mental illness and his father migrated to the United States and, according to him, “never looked back”.
Hence, he really didn’t have a plan for his future. This led to him sometimes getting involved with the wrong crowd until he turned the tide.
After that short period, the father of one got a steady job as a landscaper and a security guard until about 2009.
“But they wanted to take advantage of yuh. Got you working and ain’t want to pay yuh so I decide to stand home. It wasn’t easy because you don’t get work that easy. Then one day a brethren call me about crabs and that is how it start. I crabbing for a living now ’bout six or seven years.
“It puts money in my pocket, yeah . . . . I can make a living off it very, very easy because you can catch a bag of crabs every day and make at least $100, and by month’s end you could got $1 000; that is the honest truth,” he said.
Leacock goes crabbing up to five times a week and on a good night he can catch up to 50 crabs. The dry season is his hardest time of year but he supplements his income doing landscaping jobs.
There are several hazards to his jobs, including being pinched by the crabs’ claws. But there is a special technique to holding them, one which Leacock revealed has helped him avoid disaster.
“I get [pinch] plenty a time, how you mean, but it all depends on how you hold the crab. I find females does pinch the hardest,” he said, laughing.
Leacock also explained why he prefers to go crabbing alone.
“If you carry more than one person and the body start talking, the crabs gine run; they [are] very smart. So it is best to go by yourself and come back by yourself.
“My best technique is to carry a bag. Although I holding the bag I still have to catch the crabs, but that ain’t nothing ’cause’ if I go alone I can push off whatever time I feel like. Some people would go wid you today and then when you call them tomorrow, it is a problem,” he said.
The work is not yet over when he catches the crabs because they also have to be purged (fed grass) and cleaned for transportation.
“From a distance it look easy but it is a lot of hard work, no lie. You have to have energy and patience to do this job.
“You does get some that real heavy and when you got to put it [the bag] over your shoulder, it don’t be easy, it does be real heavy; heavier than a bag of cement and a bag of feed, for truth.”
Currently, he has a steady clientele but his hope is to one day branch out and sell the crabs to local restaurants also.
“Somebody told me about reaching out to the restaurants but I have no idea how to do that. That could help me expand the business, that is what people tell me, and that is why I am glad for the little exposure,” he added. (SDB Media)
