One of the coolest things we saw while on survey was a mass tanner crab molt. A little more than midway up the east side of Deadmans Bay we encountered a bathtub ring of complete tanner crab shells. Thousands and thousands of shed shells. Philip told me that the crabs have evolved to all shed at once because that way the hard shell crabs don't cannibalize the soft shell molts. A mass molt reduces cannibalism.
At low tide we found dead soft shell crabs that had died during the process. We even saw a few live ones in the process of shedding their shells. But I think most had been caught by the falling tide and simply died. In any case it was amazing to see how they first bust out of the back of their carapace and then pull everything out - even the tiny little legs. Once the process was complete the soft shell tanner was a bright red color.
Back in town Philip reported the event to the local crab biologists. They told him that it is not a yearly event. The last time they knew of it happening in Deadmans Bay was back in 2011. And back then it occurred 2 weeks later in mid May.And no we did not eat one - I wish we had!
Patrick
This is great to see. I would have been tempted to eat one as well but they would probably have been more mush than muscle given their molt state.
ReplyDeleteI REALLY wanted to eat a few - but Philip was against it. But he did say I could try if I wanted too
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