Blue Crabs

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Blue Crabs

• By Jesse Gore

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Blue Crabs

• Euryhaline organisms
• Live in estuaries
• Have a wide tolerance to changing conditions and
  can rapidly adapt
• Found along
• East Coast
• Gulf of Mexico
• Parts of South America
• Population decline from overfishing

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Blue Crabs

• Major predators include
• Striped bass, Atlantic croaker, eel
• Cannibalism is very common
• Prey upon
• Bivalves, worms, plants, and dead fish
• Each other

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Growth

• Molting
• Increase in size by discrete steps at ecdysis
• Warm weather and brackish water optimal
• busting stage

• Megalopae
• Juvenile
• Adult

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Life Cycle

• Migrate up estuaries to mate
• Migrate down estuaries to spawn
• Larvae and megalopae live in the ocean

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Males vs Females

• Male crabs Jimmies

• Female crabs She-crabs or Sooks

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Catching Blue Crabs

• Commercial
• Crab pots
• Dredges
• Otter Trawls
• Bait fish, eel
• Recreational
• Traps
• Dip Nets
• Bait Chicken works great!!

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Cooking/Preparation

• Steaming
• Frying
• Soups
• Stuffed