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October 2017
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boatingonthehudson.com
This Bountiful
Hudson River
I
t was a beautiful, bright clear morning when
I pulled into the huge parking lot of Cornetta’s
Seafood Restaurant in Piermont, NY, (just below the
Tappan Zee Bridge on the west shore) to find the
“boys” unloading their “catch of the day” into their
pickup truck.
Just a few years ago this scene was played out
in many locations on the lower Hudson River, now
the Holmes brothers, Ray and Clarke and George
Flobeck were the last commercial crabbers on the
Hudson River.
Six bushel baskets were unloaded onto the
ground from the boat Each bushel basket holding
approximately 40 large blue claw crabs, arguably
the finest blue claws on the East Coast.
by John H. Vargo, Publisher