Everglades City Celebrates Blessing of Stone Crab Fleet

Thirteen years ago, Todd Dahlke was in a conversation with a local crabber about the tradition of having an impromptu party out on the water to celebrate the beginning of stone crab season. Though he was new to Everglades City, Dahlke suggested they start the tradition of blessing the stone crab fleet each season.

“It just kept sort of steam rolling,” Dahlke said. “Then we added frog jumping, then the guava coconut cake contest. It’s a local Everglades City recipe. It goes back 100 years. I’m trying to make it the Key Lime Pie of this area. We had 10 entries one year.”

Dahlke moved to Everglades City from Ft. Myers and has never looked back.

“I feel like it’s the last little peaceful place in Florida,” Dahlke said, “the last bastion.”

He said the Blessing of the Fleet pretty much runs itself these days.

" I started it,” he said, "but now it kind of runs itself. I just call everybody to say, like, ‘Hey, you’re going to bring those frogs, right?’ Or ‘Are you going to pick up the trophies?’ It’s gained enough steam that it’s become its own thing. No one’s selling tickets. Nobody’s selling elephant ears. It’s just a little celebration of the beginning of stone crab season for us.”

"Todd came to me 13 years ago and said, ‘Hey, what do you think about doing a blessing of the fleet?’ said Reverend Bob Wallace, of Everglades Community Church. "We said, ‘Hey, we’re a seafaring community, let’s do it!' So, they bring the boats down around 11:00 AM. I stand here and have the overall blessing. It’s become a tradition.”

Captain Kent Daniels, whose family goes back generations in Everglades City, said it would be impossible to overstate the importance of the stone crab in Everglades City.

“I’ve been in Everglades City all of my life and then some," Daniels said. “My family goes back eight generations. Back in the day you had to hunt, fish, or grow everything that you ate. It was a hard life, but it was a good life. Stone crab is still the major seafood around. We’re still the stone crab capital of the world. That’s what’s happening today, the blessing of the stone crab fleet.”

"It’s the start of the stone crab season,” Daniels continues. “This gives everybody in the community a chance to see the boats. But it’s also a blessing of the crew and the boats for a safe year and a safe return. It is a major deal. Almost everybody in Everglades City in some way, shape, form, or fashion, is involved in the stone crab industry. The stone crab boats, the guys who work on the boats, you have the house that buys ‘em, the ones who cooks 'em, the ones that ship 'em - the truckers. Then you’ve got the restaurants and then you’ve got the ones who takes the lights and sells ‘em. I’d say three quarters of the people around town make their living with the stone crab one way or the other. It’s carried Everglades City for many a year. When they stepped in 1995 and took the commercial gill nets out of here, we kind of figured that would be the end of Everglades City. But thank God it wasn’t. We pulled ourselves out like we did before. Like me, a commercial fisherman, that went back into guide fishing."