Blue Claw Crabs

Blue Claw Crabs thrive in shallow warm water, which is why the Chesapeake Bay is an ideal climate for them. Blue crab distribution varies with age, sex, and season: Blue crabs tend to be abundant in shallow-water areas during warm weather; in winter they are plentiful in the Bay's deeper portions. Males range farther up into the fresher waters of the Bay and its rivers than females, who congregate in saltier waters. Blue crabs are bottom-dwellers that use beds of submerged aquatic grasses as sources of food, nursery habitat for young, and shelter during mating, and molting. Blue crabs occupy a wide variety of habitats throughout their life history. Offshore, high-salinity waters are used during early larval stages. Larvae move into the estuary and use intertidal marshes, sea grass beds, and soft-sediment shorelines as they grow. Crabs are highly tolerant of temperature and salinity variations and can live in just about any region of the Bay. Habitat loss and increased nutrient loading present the greatest threats to the population. Red drum (not too many in the Chesapeake area), croaker (amount varies from year to year), striped bass, and other blue crabs prey upon blue crabs. The blue claw crab is a major part of the Chesapeake Bay Ecosystem. Due to the economic and iconic value of the blue crab, it is considered a keystone species influencing many aspects of the Bay's ecosystem.