All About Blue Crab

Although there are thousands of species of crab, the blue crab is one of the most important and famous. Found in the Chesapeake Bay, the blue crab serves as the Bay’s signature crustacean.

The blue crab is a member of the swimming crab family, known as Callinectes (“beautiful swimmer”) sapidus (“savory.”) The species is an aggressive, bottom-dwelling predator and affects many other organisms in the Bay ecosystem and food chain.

What does the blue crab look like?
Blue crabs vary in color from olive to bluish green with white underneath.

• Adults have bright blue claws. Claws of mature females have red at the tips.
• Rear swimming legs shaped like paddles and three pairs of walking legs.
• The width of the shell is more than twice its length and blue crabs can grow to 9 inches wide.
• The shell has nine teeth on the margin; the ninth tooth is a strong spine.
• Male blue crabs’ abdomens, also known as the apron, is strongly tapered, resembling an inverted “T.” The female abdomen is broad and rounded, wile the immature (prior to mating) female’s is triangular.

Where does the blue crab live?
During the course of their lives, blue crabs utilize all habitats within the Bay. Distribution of crabs varies with age, sex and season.

• They tend to be most abundant in shallower areas during warm weather and are plentiful in the Bay’s deeper portions during winter.
• Females congregate in saltier waters, but males range much farther up the Bay and tributaries.
• They are bottom-dwellers, using bay grass beds for mating, shelter and nursery habitat. This is also where they find food.

What does the blue crab eat?
Blue crabs serve as both predator and prey, for fish, birds and even other blue crabs. Soft shell crabs, blue crabs that have recently molted, are especially vulnerable to predators.
Blue crabs are omnivores and feed on nearly anything they can find, including:

• Clams and oysters
• Crustaceans
• Dead fish
• Bristle worms
• Juvenile and soft shell blue crabs

Other facts about the blue crab:

• Few blue crabs live longer than three years.
• Mature female crabs are known as “sooks” and males are called “jimmies.”
• Blue crab mating takes place from May through October.