I would pay well to see that flick -- "Invasion of the Soft-Shell Crabs" -- provided the subjects were offered as concession-stand snacks.

Some people mistakenly think that soft-shell crabs are some mutant crustacean. They're actually regular old blue crabs that have shed their shells but have not yet grown new ones. That means you can eat the entire crab, the whole thing.

Fresh soft shells crawled into seafood markets this month, bearing Manhattan matinee prices. But this is a once-a-year performance that I long for each spring. The soft-shell season varies with the weather -- cooler weather slows down shedding, warm speeds it up -- but it generally lasts only through May and June on the North Carolina coast.

Frozen ones are available year round, allowing sushi bars to offer the appropriately named Spider Roll, which includes a tempura-fried soft shell in the middle. A steady supply is good because I have exterminated my share of Spider Rolls.

However, as is the case with most things seasonal -- summer peaches, sweet corn and the Easter Bunny, for example -- familiarity breeds a yawn. Keep your Christmas lights up all year and they go from a festive surprise to just another thing to dust.

Recently, I was forced to buy nectarines in January to test a recipe, and they were disappointing little red balls that didn't even seem related to the nectar-filled ones of July.

We've gotten used to 24/7 food, cooking and eating in a world with no calendar. Not only can this practice be expensive, but it also dulls the joy of discovery. When the first local strawberries arrive at the farmers market, it's like a spring holiday. They taste better, too.

Soft-shell crabs used to be our little Southern secret, but something so good couldn't stay quiet for long. Now, catches go to restaurants in New York and beyond.

The first time I visited a soft-shell shedding operation on the coast, I asked the fisherman if it was possible to take too many crabs. He laughed, as if I had asked if you could remove too much crabgrass from a yard.

That was more than 10 years ago. Today, blue crabs have fallen victim to many of the same problems that face other North Carolina seafood: pollution and overfishing. Blue crabs, in particular, are sensitive to changes in water salinity, which means that storms that wash in too much freshwater or sea water will affect the population.

Declines in the blue crab population led the General Assembly to fund the Blue Crab Research Program, administered by North Carolina Sea Grant, to study everything from crab biology to soft-shell shedding technology. One experimental program is attempting to raise crabs from eggs, which might eventually lead to crab aquaculture.

Until technology marches on, soft shells are harvested the same way they have been for many years. When waters begin to warm in the spring, crabbers go on the hunt for "peelers," or crabs that will shortly shed their shells. They target female crabs by placing "jimmies," male crabs, in their crab pots. When females are about to undergo their final molt, they seek out male crabs for mating and protection during shedding. A good jimmy (whatever that entails in the female crab brain) can draw 10 to 15 females.

The crabs go in shedders: long trays of sea water. Then, crabbers wait. The shedders must be tended 24 hours a day so that crabs can be harvested immediately after shedding, before the new shell can harden.

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