This holiday season isn’t looking that bright for stone crab harvesters in Hernando County.

Michael Birren has been making his living on the Gulf of Mexico for about 30 years. Usually during December, he’s cashing in on stone crabs but he has never seen a December this bad.

"That’s my livelihood right here behind me, so if I don’t catch crabs I don’t make any money," he said. "So it has been very tough right now."

Thanks to warm water, weather and octopus, very few crabs are available for harvesting right now. The weather is too warm to really get the crabs moving and the octopus are feasting on them.

Crabbers say that usually during the month of December they bring in 300 to 500 pounds of crab a day. These days they are only bringing in 50 to 100 pounds - if they even bother to go out.

Birren says it takes 200 pounds of crab just to break even on one trip so he’s not leaving the dock. He’s having a hard time paying bills and says Christmas might not be so jolly this year.

“It is going to be a slim one," Birren said. "Not much under the tree I would think.”

Kathy Birren is a wholesaler and the owner of Hernando Beach Seafood. She’s struggling too.

"I’ve had three boats in the past week and a half that basically quit,” she said.

Crabbers say the situation is bad up and down the coast. We’re hearing retail prices for the crab claws have gone up 30 percent over the past few weeks.