Re: NANFA-- blue crab growth

David Smith (idleweed_at_tusco.net)
Fri, 13 Feb 2004 06:06:33 -0500

I would bet that the crabs have no or few human predators in the freshwater
pools and have many in the brackish areas. If you had some commercial
crabbers put traps there in a restricted (size-wise) area all that would be
left are small crabs.
Dave Smith

----- Original Message -----
From: <Moontanman_at_aol.com>
To: <nanfa_at_aquaria.net>
Sent: Friday, February 13, 2004 1:10 AM
Subject: Re: NANFA-- blue crab growth

> We have a couple of populations of blue crabs here that are land locked as
> adults. The young get drawn into the cooling lake at very high tides and
then
> can't return and live out their lives in freshwater (black water) and they
get
> much bigger than blue crabs that live in salt water. I have personally
measured
> crabs 13 inches across the carapace and not just one or two but bushels of
> them in that range. I have never seen a blue crab raised in salt water
even
> close to that big. I talked to a marine biologist at UNCW a long time ago
and he
> said they got bigger due to living in freshwater. They can't breed and
every
> time they shed they get bigger due to the lack of salts in the water. I
thought
> someone on the list might know if they grow faster or slower or the same
under
> those conditions.
>
> Moon

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/ For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org