That’s why they produce a lot, so their chance of surviving is good.”Įggs typically hatch during the late summer months, but weather can also play a part in the hatching season, Jesien said. “There are a lot of things that eat them. “Probably one or two survive,” said Roman Jesien, a science coordinator with the Maryland Coastal Bays Program. Crabs brood their eggs for about two weeks and will hatch once the spongy egg mass darkens from yellow into a chocolate brown color. The pregnant females move into higher salinity water at the mouth of the bay. The female will move below the male crab once she is ready to mate, but the male crab must wait until the female’s shell cracks before he can mate with her.Īfter mating, the sook’s apron becomes distended with a large, yellow sponge mass containing 1 to 3 million eggs. Striped bass and sea bass prey upon soft crabs, but once crabs develop their hard shells again, most large fish back off from their hardened claws.īefore mating, the jimmy courts the sook through a dance. During this period, soft-shell crabs hide in the marshes and take shelter in seagrass beds. Without their shells, crabs are weakened and can’t fight back, explained Kelly Webb, a crab program biologist at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. When crabs relinquish their protective armor during shedding, they also become more vulnerable to predators. The sook reaches maturity when the triangular apron on her underside develops into a rounded one. But once the water warms up, they’ll emerge and start feeding again.īlue crabs mate throughout the summer, marking a once-in-a-lifetime event for the females but a frequent ritual for promiscuous male crabs.Ī male crab, or jimmy, will shed his exoskeleton as he grows throughout his life, but the female crab, or sook, will shed only after she reaches maturity before mating. In the span of about three years, Maryland’s signature crustacean undergoes a complex life cycle shaped by currents, which take them from bay to ocean and back again.ĭuring the winter, crabs burrow in the mud and hibernate. It’s hard to imagine, but the blue crab’s natural environment is not flanked by Old Bay seasoning. LEWES – This summer, watermen will haul thousands of bushels of blue crabs from the depths of local bays and oceans, carry them to shore and heap them onto plates from Baltimore to Dewey Beach.
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