The blue crab
is an important member of the swimming crab
family. It is found widely from Nova Scotia
to Northern Argentina, but along the coast of
North America it is very abundant from Texas
to Massachusetts. The diet of the blue crab
varies from fish, crabs, clams, snails and even
decayed vegetation.
Swimming crabs
grow by shedding their shells by a process called
molting. It sheds its hard old shell and starts
growing a new shell. Just before the new shell
begins to harden, it is pliable and can be stretched.
At this juncture, the crab is called the soft
shelled crab. Male crabs continue to molt and
grow throughout their entire lives. But females
stop growing when they reach sexual maturity
after 21 or 22 molts. During this final molt,
mating takes place.
The blue swimming
crab has a very high commercial value. They
are harvested as hard shell crabs, peeler crabs
just prior to molting and soft shelled crabs
immediately after the molt.
The blue swimming
crab is the most common edible crab of the Atlantic
coast and several million pounds are fished
commercially each by trapping or trawling. It
is sold both as the hard shelled variety and
as the delicacy known as the soft shelled crab.
When the crabs are about to molt, they are at
the peeler stage. Commercial fishermen then
hold the crabs, in pens until just after the
molt, when they are marketable.
The Chesapeake
Bay is North America's largest estuary where
freshwater and salt water are mixed together.
It is the center of United States' hard shell
blue swimming crab fisheries as well as the
biggest national supplier of soft shell crabs.
These soft shell crabs are harvested here annually
to the tune of 100 million pounds. Due to over
fishing, certain species of fish stocks have
collapsed. Hence the seafood industry has become
even more dependent upon crabs. Commercial farming
of crabs are difficult because crabs are cannibalistic
and can not be kept together.
Blue swimming
crab as an industry is definitely threatened.
The depletion of this species would affect all
of the United States as blue crabs are shipped
everywhere. Fishermen would become unemployed
and restaurants would not be able to afford
to buy crab and would go out of business. Hence
all regulatory measures are being adopted to
protect the blue swimming crab from being over
harvested.
For price
quotes and any further information, feel free
to call us today at:
Siam
Canadian Foods Co., Ltd.
9th Floor, Suite 283/44, Home Place Office Building.
283 Thonglor 13, Sukhumvit 55
Kongton Nua, Wattana, Bangkok 10110,
THAILAND
Call us at +66-2-185-3311
Fax: +66-2-185-3317
Email us at info@siamcanadian.com
