Blue Crab

About the Blue Crab

The Blue Crab is the fighter of the Texas bays - the scientific name means "beautiful savory swimmer," and all three words are earned. The shell is olive-brown, but the claws flash brilliant blue, tipped red in females, and the crab raises them in instant challenge to anything that comes close, photographers included.

Blue crabs are true swimming crabs: the last pair of legs is flattened into paddles, and they can scuttle sideways through the water with surprising speed or bury themselves to the eyestalks in soft mud.

They are also the workhorses of the estuary food web. Blue crabs scavenge and hunt almost anything - clams, small fish, carrion, each other - and in turn feed everything from redfish to raccoons. Whooping Cranes wintering on the Texas coast depend so heavily on them that biologists track crab numbers to predict how the cranes will fare.

Add the commercial and recreational fishery and this feisty crustacean touches Texas coastal life at every level - a genuine keystone species with an attitude to match.