2008/04/21 | Lobster Facts | Trackback | Comments [RSS 2.0]
Empty Tanner Crab Shells
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| The bodies of dozens of pale brown Tanner crabs were strewn over the blue-mussel-lined beach at the North Douglas Boat Launch last week. "It’s like something straight out of a horror movie," said Debrah Clements, a North Douglas resident who saw them there. But these aren’t corpses from some mass death. The shells are empty and their owners were just doing what young male Tanner crabs do starting this time of year: molting. That’s the process whereby crabs cast off their shells and begin growing new ones. "It’s very easy and not at all surprising to mistake a cast-off shell of a crab for actually being a crab," said shellfish biologist Gretchen Bishop with the state Department of Fish and Game. "They will even leave behind the outer coating of the eyeballs and mouth parts." Bishop said the shells are most likely blown |
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