Tagged blue crabs

[NichollsCrabTags]

Originally Posted by keakar

and I was always told ALL crabs will molt and change shell about every 3 weeks as long as it is still growing.

always glad to learn something new

gotta admit thou, I wouldn't tag and release a big female, they taste too good.

but I love the idea of helping with the research, just wish this could be done for small crabs, I release hundreds of those each year.

Small crabs would be tough because of the molting. There are ways of tagging them that will last through the molt, but they are a bit more difficult.

Also, if you catch one with a tag- we aren't asking you to release it. We just need you to call us with the tag info (or report it online). After that, you can pull the tag off and do whatever you want with the crab.

[keakar]

Originally Posted by NichollsCrabTags

Small crabs would be tough because of the molting. There are ways of tagging them that will last through the molt, but they are a bit more difficult.

Also, if you catch one with a tag- we aren't asking you to release it. We just need you to call us with the tag info (or report it online). After that, you can pull the tag off and do whatever you want with the crab.

but how could you tag it so it wouldn't prevent the crab from escaping the discarded shell? I would think anything that stays connected to the inner crab would keep them connected to the old shell wouldn't it?

and of course if I ever caught anything tagged I would absolutely turn it in along with whatever info I could give about it.

I was speaking that if I caught one to put a tag on it and release it, in terms of my own greed and love for crabs, its hard to throw one back even though that's being greedy

[NichollsCrabTags]

Originally Posted by keakar

but how could you tag it so it wouldn't prevent the crab from escaping the discarded shell? I would think anything that stays connected to the inner crab would keep them connected to the old shell wouldn't it?

and of course if I ever caught anything tagged I would absolutely turn it in along with whatever info I could give about it.

I was speaking that if I caught one to put a tag on it and release it, in terms of my own greed and love for crabs, its hard to throw one back even though that's being greedy

There are several types of tags that are inserted into the muscle, through one of the joints where the old shell splits. They look a bit like plastic spaghetti printed with small text. They have a t-shaped barb on one end that hold them in the muscle, so when the crab molts the old shell splits around it, and the crab is able to escape, while keeping the tag. These types of tags aren't as visible, though, and are not as fast to attach to the crab.