''Callinectes sapidus'' (from the
Ancient Greek ,"beautiful" + , "swimmer", and
Latin , "savory"), the blue crab, Atlantic blue crab, or regionally as the Chesapeake blue crab, is a species of
crab
Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (abdomen) ( el, βραχύς , translit=brachys = short, / = tail), usually hidden entirely under the thorax. They live in all the ...
native to the waters of the western
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Afr ...
and the
Gulf of Mexico, and introduced internationally.
''C. sapidus'' is of considerable culinary and economic importance in the United States, particularly in
Louisiana, the
Carolinas
The Carolinas are the U.S. states of North Carolina and South Carolina, considered collectively. They are bordered by Virginia to the north, Tennessee to the west, and Georgia to the southwest. The Atlantic Ocean is to the east.
Combining Nort ...
, the
Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the Eastern Shore of Maryland / E ...
,
Delaware, and
New Jersey. It is the
Maryland state crustacean and the state's largest commercial
fishery.
Due to
overfishing and environmental pressures some of the fisheries have seen declining yields, especially in the Chesapeake Bay fishery.
Unlike other
fisheries affected by climate change, blue crab is expected to do well; warming causes better breeding conditions, more survivable winters, and a greater range of habitable areas in the Atlantic coast.
Whether this will have negative effects on the surrounding ecosystems from an increased crab population is still unclear.
Description
''C. sapidus'' is a decapod crab of the swimming crab family Portunidae. The genus ''Callinectes'' is distinguished from other
portunid crabs by the lack of an internal cartilaginous spine on the carpus (the middle segment of the claw), as well as by the T-shape of the male abdomen.
Blue crabs may grow to a
carapace
A carapace is a dorsal (upper) section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods, such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates, such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tortoises, the under ...
width of . ''C. sapidus'' individuals exhibit
sexual dimorphism. Males and females are easily distinguished by the shape of the abdomen (known as the "apron") and by color differences in the chelipeds, or claws. The abdomen is long and slender in males, but wide and rounded in mature females. A popular
mnemonic
A mnemonic ( ) device, or memory device, is any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval (remembering) in the human memory for better understanding.
Mnemonics make use of elaborative encoding, retrieval cues, and imager ...
is that the male's apron is shaped like the
Washington Monument, while the mature female's resembles the dome of the
United States Capitol
The United States Capitol, often called The Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the seat of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, which is formally known as the United States Congress. It is located on Capitol Hill at ...
.
Claw color differences are more subtle than apron shape. The immovable, fixed finger of the claws in males is blue with red tips, while females have orange coloration with purple tips.
A female's abdomen changes as it matures: an immature female has a triangular-shaped abdomen, whereas a mature female's is rounded.
Other species of ''Callinectes'' may be easily confused with ''C. sapidus'' because of overlapping ranges and similar morphology. One species is the lesser blue crab (''
C. similis''). It is found further offshore than the common blue crab, and has a smoother granulated carapace. Males of the lesser blue crab also have mottled white coloration on the swimming legs, and females have areas of violet coloration on the internal surfaces of the claws. ''C. sapidus'' can be distinguished from another related species found within its range, ''
C. ornatus'', by number of frontal teeth on the carapace. ''C. sapidus'' has four, while ''C. ornatus'' has six.
The crab's blue hue stems from a number of pigments in the shell, including alpha-
crustacyanin
Crustacyanin is a carotenoprotein biological pigment found in the exoskeleton of lobsters and responsible for their blue colour. β-Crustacyanin (β-CR), is composed of two stacked astaxanthin carotenoids that absorb at λ = 580–590 nm (2. ...
, which interacts with a red pigment,
astaxanthin, to form a greenish-blue coloration. When the crab is cooked, the alpha-crustacyanin breaks down, leaving only the astaxanthin, which turns the crab to a bright orange-red color.
Organochloride
An organochloride, organochlorine compound, chlorocarbon, or chlorinated hydrocarbon is an organic compound containing at least one covalently bonded atom of chlorine. The chloroalkane class (alkanes with one or more hydrogens substituted by chlor ...
s are found by Sheridan et al 1975 to be transferred to the ''C. sapidus''
hepatopancreas.
[ ]AGRIS
AGRIS (International System for Agricultural Science and Technology) is a global public domain database with more than 12 million structured bibliographical records on agricultural science and technology. It became operational in 1975 and the data ...
i
XF2016073628
They find that among organochlorides,
DDT
Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, commonly known as DDT, is a colorless, tasteless, and almost odorless crystalline chemical compound, an organochloride. Originally developed as an insecticide, it became infamous for its environmental impacts. ...
specifically is converted both to
DDE and
DDD in this crab.
Distribution
''C. sapidus'' is native to the western edge of the Atlantic Ocean from
Cape Cod
Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...
to
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
and around the entire coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
It has recently been reported north of Cape Cod in the
Gulf of Maine, potentially representing a range expansion due to climate change. It has been introduced (via
ballast water
Ballast is used in ships to provide moment to resist the lateral forces on the hull. Insufficiently ballasted boats tend to tip or heel excessively in high winds. Too much heel may result in the vessel capsizing. If a sailing vessel needs to vo ...
) to
Japanese and
European waters, and has been observed in the
Baltic
Baltic may refer to:
Peoples and languages
*Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian
*Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originatin ...
,
North
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.
Etymology
The word ''north'' is ...
,
Mediterranean, and
Black Seas. The first record from European waters was made in 1901 at
Rochefort
Rochefort () may refer to:
Places France
* Rochefort, Charente-Maritime, in the Charente-Maritime department
** Arsenal de Rochefort, a former naval base and dockyard
* Rochefort, Savoie in the Savoie department
* Rochefort-du-Gard, in the G ...
,
France.
In some parts of its introduced range, ''C. sapidus'' has become the subject of
crab fishery
Crab fisheries are fisheries which capture or farm crabs. True crabs make up 20% of all crustaceans caught and farmed worldwide, with about 1.4 million tonnes being consumed annually. The horse crab, '' Portunus trituberculatus'', accounts for o ...
, including in
Greece, where the local population may be decreasing as a result of
overfishing.
Ecology
The natural predators of ''C. sapidus'' include
eel
Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...
s,
drum,
striped bass,
spot
Spot or SPOT may refer to:
Places
* Spot, North Carolina, a community in the United States
* The Spot, New South Wales, a locality in Sydney, Australia
* South Pole Traverse, sometimes called the South Pole Overland Traverse
People
* Spot (produ ...
,
trout, some
sharks,
humans,
cownose ray
The cownose ray (''Rhinoptera bonasus'') is a species of Batoidea found throughout a large part of the western Atlantic and Caribbean, from New England, United States to southern Brazil (the East Atlantic populations are now generally considered ...
s, and
whiptail stingrays. ''C. sapidus'' is an
omnivore, eating both plants and animals. It typically consumes thin-shelled
bivalve
Bivalvia (), in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class of marine and freshwater molluscs that have laterally compressed bodies enclosed by a shell consisting of two hinged parts. As a group, biva ...
s,
annelid
The annelids (Annelida , from Latin ', "little ring"), also known as the segmented worms, are a large phylum, with over 22,000 extant species including ragworms, earthworms, and leeches. The species exist in and have adapted to various ecolo ...
s,
small fish,
plants
Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclude ...
, and nearly any other item it can find, including
carrion
Carrion () is the decaying flesh of dead animals, including human flesh.
Overview
Carrion is an important food source for large carnivores and omnivores in most ecosystems. Examples of carrion-eaters (or scavengers) include crows, vultures, c ...
, other ''C. sapidus'' individuals, and animal waste. In salt marshes, ''C. sapidus'' will eat marsh periwinkles, ''
Littoraria irrorata
''Littoraria irrorata'', also known by the common name the marsh periwinkle, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Littorinidae. The specific epithet ' means 'moistened' or 'dewy.'
This species occurs in salt mars ...
'' during high tides.
Although an aquatic predator, ''C. sapidus'' will remain in shallow pits in salt marshes at low tide and ambush intertidal prey such as fiddler crabs (e.g., ''Minuca pugnax'') and purple marsh crabs (''Sesarma reticulatum'') ''C. sapidus'' may be able to control populations of the invasive green crab, ''
Carcinus maenas
''Carcinus maenas'' is a common littoral crab. It is known by different names around the world. In the British Isles, it is generally referred to as the shore crab, or green shore crab. In North America and South Africa, it bears the name europ ...
''; numbers of the two species are negatively
correlated
In statistics, correlation or dependence is any statistical relationship, whether causal or not, between two random variables or bivariate data. Although in the broadest sense, "correlation" may indicate any type of association, in statistic ...
, and ''C. maenas'' is not found in the
Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the Eastern Shore of Maryland / E ...
, where ''C. sapidus'' is most abundant.
''C. sapidus'' is subject to a number of diseases and
parasites.
These include a number of
viruses,
bacteria,
microsporidia
Microsporidia are a group of spore-forming unicellular parasites. These spores contain an extrusion apparatus that has a coiled polar tube ending in an anchoring disc at the apical part of the spore. They were once considered protozoans or pr ...
ns,
ciliate
The ciliates are a group of alveolates characterized by the presence of hair-like organelles called cilia, which are identical in structure to eukaryotic flagella, but are in general shorter and present in much larger numbers, with a differen ...
s, and others.
The
nemertean worm
Nemertea is a phylum of animals also known as ribbon worms or proboscis worms, consisting of 1300 known species. Most ribbon worms are very slim, usually only a few millimeters wide, although a few have relatively short but wide bodies. Many h ...
''
Carcinonemertes carcinophila'' commonly parasitizes ''C. sapidus'', especially females and older crabs, although it has little adverse effect on the crab.
A trematode that parasitizes ''C. sapidus'' is itself targeted by the
hyperparasite
A hyperparasite, also known as a metaparasite, is a parasite whose host, often an insect, is also a parasite, often specifically a parasitoid. Hyperparasites are found mainly among the wasp-waisted Apocrita within the Hymenoptera, and in two ot ...
''
Urosporidium crescens''.
The most harmful parasites may be the microsporidian ''
Ameson michaelis
''Ameson'' is a genus of microsporidia
Microsporidia are a group of spore-forming unicellular parasites. These spores contain an extrusion apparatus that has a coiled polar tube ending in an anchoring disc at the apical part of the spore. T ...
'', the amoeba ''
Paramoeba perniciosa'' and the
dinoflagellate ''
Hematodinium perezi
''Hematodinium perezi'' is an internal dinoflagellate parasite that infects crustaceans, including blue crabs, and causes bitter crab disease. Other crustaceans that have been observed to be infected include the Norway Lobster and King Crab, a ...
'', which causes "bitter crab disease".
In 2021, scientists from the
University of Maryland completed
DNA sequencing on ''C. sapidus's'' genome in Baltimore after six years of research to help better understand the species. This genetic map is expected to help scientists understand how the blue crabs will be affected by climate change and warmer water temperatures, along with which mutations cause disease, traits that influence meat production, and which females have the best reproductive ability.
Lifecycle
Growth
Eggs of ''C. sapidus'' hatch in high-salinity waters of inlets, coastal waters, and mouths of rivers, and are carried to the ocean by ebb tides.
During seven planktonic (zoeal) stages, blue crab larvae float near the surface and feed on microorganisms they encounter. After the eighth zoeal stage, larvae molt into megalopae. This larval form has small claws called chelipeds for grasping prey items.
Megalopae selectively migrate upward in the water column as tides travel landward toward estuaries. Eventually, blue crabs arrive in brackish water, where they spend the majority of their lives. Chemical cues in estuarine water prompt metamorphosis to the juvenile phase, after which blue crabs appear similar to the adult form.
A blue crab grows by shedding its
exoskeleton, or molting, to expose a new, larger exoskeleton. After it hardens, the new shell fills with body tissue. Shell hardening occurs most quickly in low-salinity water where high osmotic pressure allows the shell to become rigid soon after molting.
Molting reflects only incremental growth, making age estimation difficult.
For blue crabs, the number of molts in a lifetime is fixed at about 25. Females typically exhibit 18 molts after the larval stages, while postlarval males molt about 20 times.
Male blue crabs tend to grow broader and have more accentuated lateral spines than females.
Growth and molting are profoundly influenced by temperature and food availability. Higher temperatures and greater food resources decrease the period of time between molts, as well as the change in size during molts (molt increment). Salinity and disease also have subtle impacts on molting and growth rate.
Molting occurs more rapidly in low-salinity environments. The high osmotic pressure gradient causes water to quickly diffuse into a soft, recently molted blue crab's shell, allowing it to harden more quickly. The effects of diseases and parasites on growth and molting are less well understood, but in many cases have been observed to reduce growth between molts. For example, mature female blue crabs infected with the parasitic rhizocephalan barnacle ''Loxothylacus texanus'' appear extremely stunted in growth when compared to uninfected mature females.
Blue crabs may reach maturity within one year of hatching in the Gulf of Mexico, while Chesapeake Bay crabs may take up to 18 months to mature.
As a result of different growth rates, commercial and recreational crabbing occur year-round in the Gulf of Mexico, while crabbing seasons are closed for colder parts of the year in northern states.
Reproduction
Mating and spawning are distinct events in blue crab reproduction. Males may mate several times and undergo no major changes in morphology during the process. Female blue crabs mate only once in their lifetimes during their pubertal, or terminal, molt. During this transition, the abdomen changes from a triangular to a semicircular shape. Mating in blue crab is a complex process that requires precise timing of mating at the time of the female's terminal molt. It generally occurs during the warmest months of the year. Prepubertal females migrate to the upper reaches of estuaries, where males typically reside as adults. To ensure that a male can mate, he actively seeks a receptive female and guards her for up to seven days until she molts, when insemination occurs. Crabs compete with other individuals before, during, and after insemination, so mate guarding is very important for reproductive success. After mating, a male must continue to guard the female until her shell has hardened.
Inseminated females retain spermatophores for up to one year, which they use for multiple spawnings in high salinity water.
During spawning, a female extrudes fertilized eggs onto her swimmerets and carries them in a large egg mass, or sponge, while they develop. Females migrate to the mouth of the estuary to release the larvae, the timing of which is believed to be influenced by light, tide, and lunar cycles. Blue crabs have high fecundity; females may produce up to 2 million eggs per brood.
Migration and reproduction patterns differ between crab populations along the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico. A distinct and large-scale migration occurs in Chesapeake Bay, where ''C. sapidus'' undergoes a seasonal migration of up to several hundred miles. In the middle and upper parts of the bay, mating peaks in mid- to late summer, while in the lower bay , peaks in mating activity occur during spring and late summer through early fall. Changes in salinity and temperature may impact time of mating because both factors are important during the molting process.
After mating, the female crab travels to the southern portion of the Chesapeake, using ebb tides to migrate from areas of low salinity to areas of high salinity, fertilizing her eggs with sperm stored during her single mating months or almost a year before.
Spawning events in the Gulf of Mexico are less pronounced than in estuaries along the East Coast, like the Chesapeake. In northern waters of the Gulf of Mexico, spawning occurs in the spring, summer, and fall, and females generally spawn twice. During spawning, females migrate to high -salinity waters to develop a sponge, and return inland after hatching their larvae. They develop their second sponge inland, and again migrate to the high-salinity waters to hatch the second sponge. After this, they typically do not re-enter the estuary. Blue crabs along the southernmost coast of Texas may spawn year-round.
Commercial importance
Range of fisheries
Commercial fisheries for ''C. sapidus'' exist along much of the Atlantic coast of the United States, and in the Gulf of Mexico. Although the fishery has been historically centered on the
Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the Eastern Shore of Maryland / E ...
, contributions from other localities are increasing in importance.
In the past two decades, most commercial crabs have been landed in four states: Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Louisiana. Weight and value of harvests since 2000 are listed below.
History of the crab fishery
As early as the 1600s, the blue crab was an important food item for Native Americans and European settlers in the Chesapeake Bay area. Soft and hard blue crabs were not as valuable as fish, but gained regional popularity by the 1700s. Throughout their range, crabs were also an effective bait type for hook-and-line fisheries. Rapid perishing limited the distribution and hindered the growth of the fishery. Advances in refrigeration techniques in the late 1800s and early 1900s increased demand for blue crab nationwide.
Atlantic Coast
The early blue crab fishery along the Atlantic Coast was casual and productive because blue crabs were extremely abundant. In the lower Chesapeake Bay, crabs were even considered a nuisance species because they frequently clogged the nets of seine fishermen. Early on, the blue crab fishery of the Atlantic states was well documented. Atlantic states were the first to regulate the fishery, particularly the Chesapeake states. For example, after observing a slight decline in harvest, the fishing commissions of Virginia and Maryland put size limits into place by 1912 and 1917, respectively. Catch-per-unit-effort at the time was determined by packing houses, or crab processing plants.
Gulf of Mexico
The early history of the recreational blue crab fishery in the Gulf of Mexico is not well known.
Commercial crabbing was first reported in the Gulf of Mexico in the 1880s. Early crab fishermen used long-handled dip nets and drop nets among other simple fishing gear types to trap crabs at night. Blue crab spoiled quickly, which limited distribution and hindered the growth of the fishery for several decades.
The first commercial processing plant in Louisiana opened in Morgan City in 1924. Other plants opened soon after, although commercial processing of hard blue crabs was not widespread until World War II.
Louisiana fishery
Louisiana now has the world's largest blue-crab fishery. Commercial harvests in the state account for over half of all landings in the Gulf of Mexico.
The industry was not commercialized for interstate commerce until the 1990s, when supply markedly decreased in Maryland due to problems (see above) in Chesapeake Bay. Since then, Louisiana has steadily increased its harvest. In 2002, Louisiana harvested 22% of the nation's blue crab. That number rose to 26% by 2009 and 28% by 2012. The vast majority of Louisiana crabs are shipped to Maryland, where they are sold as "Chesapeake" or "Maryland" crab. Louisiana's harvest remained high in 2013, with 17,597 metric tons of blue crab valued at $51 million.
In addition to commercial harvesting, recreational crabbing is very popular along Louisiana's coast.
Chesapeake Bay fishery
The Chesapeake Bay has had the largest blue crab harvest for more than a century. Maryland and Virginia are usually the top two Atlantic coast states in annual landings, followed by North Carolina.
In 2013, crab landings were valued at $18.7 million from Maryland waters and $16.1 million from Virginia waters.
Although crab populations are currently declining, blue crab fishing in Maryland and Virginia remains a livelihood for thousands of coastal residents. As of 2001, Maryland and Virginia collectively had 4,816 commercial crab license holders.
Three separate licenses are required for each of the three major jurisdictional areas: Maryland, the Potomac River, and Virginia waters.
While the Bay’s commercial sector lands the majority of hard crab landings and nearly all peeler or soft crab landings, the recreational fishery is also significant.
In 2013, an estimated of blue crab were harvested recreationally.
Recent decline
Blue crab populations naturally fluctuate with annual changes in environmental conditions. They have been described as having a long-term dynamic equilibrium, which was first noted after irregular landings data in the Chesapeake in 1950.
This tendency may have made it difficult for managers to predict the severe decline of the Chesapeake’s blue crab populations. Once considered an overwhelmingly abundant annoyance, the declining blue crab population is now the subject of anxiety among fishermen and managers. Over the decade between the mid-1990s to 2004, the population fell from 900 million to around 300 million, and harvest weight fell from .
Revenue fell further, from $72 million to $61 million. Long-term estimates say that the overall Chesapeake population decreased around 70% in the last few decades. Even more alarming, the number of females capable of reproducing, known as spawning age females, has plummeted 84% in just a few decades. Survival and addition of juveniles to the harvestable crab population is also low.
Many factors are to blame for low blue crab numbers, including high fishing pressure, environmental degradation, and disease prevalence.
The 2018 reduction in
H-2B visas available for
seasonal workers is affecting Maryland's 20 crab processors, which typically employ about 500 foreign workers, but the effect this will have on the crab fishery is not yet clear.
Crabbing gear
Many types of gear have been used to catch blue crabs along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts.
Initially, people used very simple techniques and gear, which included hand lines, dip nets, and push nets among a variety of other gear types. The trotline, a long baited twine set in waters 5–15 feet deep, was the first major gear type used commercially to target hard crabs.
Use of commercial trotlines is now mostly limited to the tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay. In the Gulf of Mexico, trotline use drastically declined after invention of the crab pot in 1938. Crab pots are rigid, box-like traps made of hexagonal or square wire mesh. They possess between two and four funnels that extend into the trap, with the smaller end of the funnel inside of the trap. A central compartment made of smaller wire mesh holds bait. Crabs attracted by odorant plumes from the bait, often an oily fish, enter the trap through the funnels and cannot escape.
Bycatch
Species other than blue crab are often caught incidentally in crab pots, including fish, turtles, conch, and other crab species. In Georgia, hermit crabs (''Pagurus'' spp.), channeled whelk (''Busycon canaliculatum''), spider crabs (''Libinia'' spp.), and stone crabs (''Menippe mercenaria'') were the most common species observed as bycatch in commercial crab pots.
Of important concern is the
diamondback terrapin
The diamondback terrapin or simply terrapin (''Malaclemys terrapin'') is a species of turtle native to the brackish coastal tidal marshes of the Northeastern and southern United States, and in Bermuda. It belongs to the monotypic genus ''Malaclem ...
, ''Malaclemys terrapin''. The blue crab and diamondback terrapin have overlapping ranges along the East and Gulf Coasts of the United States. Because the funnels in a crab pot are flexible, small terrapins may easily enter and become entrapped. Traps are checked every 24 hours or less, frequently resulting in drowning and death of terrapins. Crab pot bycatch may reduce local terrapin populations to less than half. To reduce terrapin entrapment,
bycatch reduction device
In the fishery business, a bycatch reduction device is a tool designed to minimize unintended capture (or bycatch) of marine animals, thus reducing the adverse effects of fishing on the ecosystem.
Development
To minimize accidental capture of ma ...
s (BRDs) may be installed on each of the funnels in a crab pot.
BRDs effectively reduce bycatch (and subsequently mortality) of small terrapins without affecting blue crab catch.
Efforts to manage fisheries
Because of its commercial and environmental value, ''C. sapidus'' is the subject of management plans over much of its range.
In 2012, the ''C. sapidus'' population in Louisiana was recognized as a certified
sustainable fishery by the
Marine Stewardship Council
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is a non-profit organization which aims to set standards for sustainable fishing. Fisheries that wish to demonstrate they are well-managed and sustainable compared to the MSC's standards are assessed by a t ...
.
It was the first and remains the only certified sustainable blue crab fishery worldwide.
For the state to maintain its certification, it must undergo annual monitoring and conduct a full re-evaluation five years after the certification date.
See also
*''
Beautiful Swimmers'', a Pulitzer Prize-winning book with an extensive discussion of the crabs and their lifecycle
*
''Chesapeake'' (novel), by James Michener with a story about ''C. sapidus'' titled "Jimmy the crab"
*
Crab cake
A crab cake is a variety of fishcake that is popular in the United States. It is composed of crab meat and various other ingredients, such as bread crumbs, mayonnaise, mustard (typically prepared mustard, but sometimes mustard powder), eggs, an ...
*
She-crab soup
She-crab soup is a rich soup, similar to bisque, made of milk or heavy cream, crab or fish stock, Atlantic blue crab meat, and (traditionally) crab roe, and a small amount of dry sherry added as it is plated. It may be thickened either by heat ...
*
Soft-shell crab
Soft-shell crab is a culinary term for crabs that have recently molted their old exoskeleton and are still soft. Soft-shells are removed from the water as soon as they molt or, preferably, just before to prevent any hardening of their shell. Cat ...
References
External links
*
Female Blue Crab Anatomy - Callinectes sapidus- Dana Point Fish Company
The Maryland Blue Crab– the wild dance of male blue crabs propels a jet of pheromones to attract would-be lovers, ''New Scientist'', 7 April 2008
Chesapeake watermen fear blue crab not coming back–
Associated Press, July 16, 2008
Blue Crab InfoCarolina Blue CrabBlue Crab - North Carolina Division of Marine FisheriesBlue Crab - North Carolina WatermenBlue Crab Fact Sheet
{{Taxonbar, from=Q844839
Portunoidea
Edible crustaceans
Commercial crustaceans
Crustaceans of the Atlantic Ocean
Crustaceans of North America
Crustaceans of the United States
Arthropods of the Dominican Republic
Crustaceans described in 1896
Taxa named by Mary J. Rathbun
Crabs of the Atlantic Ocean
Crabs