Blue Crab questions

[dannyplug1]

Finished up fishing last Saturday Sunday morning at two AM, Walked along the beach to a tidal area that sometimes breaches with high tides or heavy rain. When I got to the opening it was wet but not flowing. But what really wild was that there must have been 50 blue crabs in the wet sand one or two crawled when I put the flash light on them but all the rest stayed put like they were in a trance. The seemed to have a white coloration to them but they were definatly blue crabs. A few of them had the bottom part of their shell open. What do you guys think they were doing? Molting or laying eggs? I have no idea but am very curious. thanks charlie King of Small Striped Bass

[Rmarsh]

I don't know the answer, but I had a similar experience a few years ago at a place very much like the place you described. A very high tide was breaching over the sand into a tidal pond, where the outflow had been blocked with sand for a while.

I saw hundreds of blue crabs, I mean they were everywhere, they were leaving the pond and making thier way into the ocean, so many they were in layers. Didn't see any white coloration though. Maybe since the outflow was blocked they had to make it over the sand. Never saw it happen again but I think about it often, and wonder. Wish I had gotten a picture.

[niko]

Sounds like breeding behavior
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Jimmy Fee]

Blue crabs will spawn when they molt. When they have shed their shell, they usually hunker down because that's when they're most susceptible to predators. A molting female blue crab lets off pheremones because it's then ready to mate. The "jimmies" or male blue crabs will key in on those pheremones, but so will gamefish (which is why shedder oil and shedder crabs are such a popular bait in NJ and south). Shedder blue crabs were automatic for targeting weakfish.

After they mate, the females will develop the sponge and on large moon tides swim to a pond entrance or inlet and release the eggs, which will develop as larvae offshore before moving into the backwaters to live.