Stone-crab fishermen would welcome the same prices for more claws in the new season that opens with the first pull Thursday.

“There’s enough demand to take care of the supply but we’re hoping for more supply,” said Gary Graves from Keys Fisheries in Marathon, a leading supplier of stone-crab claws.

Last crab season closed May 15 as the most lucrative on record for the species — more than $31 million statewide, fisheries analyst Ryan Gandy with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute said.

Preliminary figures for the seven-month season show the actual harvest came in around 2.22 million pounds. That was higher than the 1.99 million pounds in the 2013-14 season but notably below the typical average of about three million pounds.

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