Wanted: Blue Crab Fishing Information

[george]

Have you caught a blue crab (Callinectes sapidus)with a yellow wire tag across its shell (carapace), as seen in the accompanying photo? This tag includes a specific number that identifies the individual crab and the date and location where the crab was initially tagged.

If you do capture a tagged crab, please contribute that information to the Blue Crab Tagging Programby answering a few quick questions about your catch. This information helps DEC investigate the migration patterns, habitat preferences, and life-history traits of blue crabs in New York's waters.

You can also help DEC collect important data by submitting information from each of your crabbing trips to the Digital Survey of Recreational Blue Crabbing. Simply fill out the quick and easy form on your internet-connected smartphone, tablet, or computer at the end of each of your crabbing trips. Remember to submit information for the trips where you don't catch any crabs. By participating in the digital survey, you will provide DEC's Division of Marine Resources staff with important data that we would otherwise be unable to collect.

For more information, visit Crabbing in New York!

 

[cany]

Pretty cool I never knew they tagged blue claws

 

[george]

Me either.

 

[CELLFISH]

How often do Crabs shed & molt, could the tag be so effective... hope so... cellie...

 

[cany]

How often do Crabs shed & molt, could the tag be so effective... hope so... cellie...

Good thinking Cno22

 

[JackPrintMD]

Very interesting, now i want to go crabbing.

We go at least once a year.
We love handling the traps and through most away, if we do keep its no more than three, must be huge and male.
The three cleaned crab are plenty to make a small tasty dark red pot of sauce for some pasta.

Will be on the lookout for the tags if we go.

 

[CELLFISH]

Very interesting, now i want to go crabbing.

We go at least once a year.
We love handling the traps and through most away, if we do keep its no more than three, must be huge and male.
The three cleaned crab are plenty to make a small tasty dark red pot of sauce for some pasta.

Will be on the lookout for the tags if we go.

Red Sauce & ? Crabs, Doc is Italian... cellie...

 

[CELLFISH]

Good thinking Cno22

Yeah, I learned that from watching Deadliest Catch for 13 years... ? cellie...

 

[BennyV]

Haven’t gone crabbing in a long time. Used to load up back in Eastchester Bay when I was a kid. All you needed was a scoop net.

 

[WhatKnot]

Used to throw the old ‘box’ cages of the rocks baited with with butter fish in the South Bronx. Western Sound, East River ‘ estuary’ with my Uncle.

 

[flounderjoe]

Being that blueclaw crabs molt or shed 20 plus times in its life ,with males a little bit more and they only live about 2 1/2 years and stop shedding from oct to late april i find it hard to believe those tags will do any good.

 

[MOJOE]

yes what if you catch a soft shell,, you better swipe the tag fast ?,,,,,,,,,,,,, ><))):>
><)):>

 

[CELLFISH]

Being that blueclaw crabs molt or shed 20 plus times in its life ,with males a little bit more and they only live about 2 1/2 years and stop shedding from oct to late april i find it hard to believe those tags will do any good.

I would think hard shell crabs are basically stationary, it’s the very small ones and larvae that get tossed and moved by currents and tides... cellfish...

 

[MakoMike]

I would think hard shell crabs are basically stationary, it’s the very small ones and larvae that get tossed and moved by currents and tides... cellfish...

You've never see crabs swimming? How do you think they get from place to place, walking?

 

[CELLFISH]

You've never see crabs swimming? How do you think they get from place to place, walking?

Nope ? crawling ...