Blue Crab

• anatomíaIts last pair of legs is flattened into paddles, shaped specifically for active swimming in coastal waters and estuaries.
• The famous soft-shell crab is not a different species: it is a blue crab caught in the hours after moulting, when its shell is still soft and it is eaten whole.
• Females mate only once in their lives, right after the pubertal moult, and store the sperm to fertilise several later clutches.
• Its scientific name means beautiful, savoury swimmer.
• Its scientific name literally means beautiful, savoury swimmer, and it is a rare case of a Latin name describing both its form and its gastronomic value.
• It sustains one of the most emblematic fisheries in the United States, that of Chesapeake Bay, with enormous cultural and economic weight in Maryland and Virginia.
• That is where the soft-shell crab comes from: the crab is caught just before it moults, kept under watch, and collected in the hours when its new shell is still soft, to be eaten whole.
• Its last pair of legs is flattened into paddles, and it is a fast, agile swimmer, unlike most bottom-dwelling crabs.
• It has become an invader in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, where it arrived in ballast water. In Spain it is established in the Ebro Delta and in several coastal lagoons, and its spread causes concern for its impact on local fauna and on fishing gear.
• The female mates only once in her life, right after her maturity moult, and stores the sperm for all her broods.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton (crustacean)

Habitat and environment

Estuaries, bays and soft-bottom coasts of the western Atlantic

Sexual maturity

1-1.5 years

Litter / clutch size

From 2 to 8 million eggs per spawning

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Callinectes sapidus