BIOLOGY AND NATURAL HISTORY 209 



as buckrams and provide little marketable meat. Crab meat is graded and 

 usually classified for the market as claw, flake, and lump. Present (1948) 

 North Carolina law sets the minimum commercial size of a hard crab at 

 5 inches measured from tip to tip of the spines on the shell or carapace. 

 Egg-bearing crabs are also protected at all times. ^ 



Immature crabs are sought for the soft-crab industry and are taken either 

 as soft crabs or more generally as peelers or young hard crabs preparing to 

 shed their shells within several days. Peelers and soft crabs average from 

 3 to 5 to the pound and are sold to the shedding houses on a numerical rather 

 than on a weight basis. Peeler crabs furnish the bulk of the stock which 

 provides the soft crab of commerce. These crabs are impounded in floats 

 and tended carefully until they have become soft and suitable for shipment. 

 A variable mortality of immature crabs occurs during this time. The degree 

 of this mortality, which may range from 20 to 60 per cent of the catch, 

 varies according to natural conditions of weather and salinity as well as 

 according to the skill with which the crabs are cared for in the floats. Soft 

 crabs are marketed by the dozen and are often graded by size (width of 

 spines) as jumbos, hotel primes, primes, mediums, and culls. The entire 

 body of a soft crab is edible although the gills and abdominal segment are 

 usually removed before cooking. Legal measures in North Carolina restrict 

 the commercial size of a soft crab to a minimum of 3 inches from tip to tip 

 of the spines (1948). 



AREAS AND SEASONS 



Hard crabs are available to fishermen in North Carolina throughout the 

 year although relatively few crabs are taken from November to February. 

 Owing to a less intensive fishery for blue crabs in North Carolina compared 

 to Chesapeake Bay, a greater proportion of male crabs are sought and 

 utilized in the State than in the Chesapeake. The fishery is prosecuted most 

 vigorously in the more brackish water areas along the western shore of 

 Pamlico Sound and in the lower Neuse and Pamlico rivers. An early spring 

 fishery occurs in Core Sound, the most southerly point in the State at which 

 any considerable volume of crabs is taken. The fishery in Carteret County 

 reaches a peak in March but falls to minor proportion after May. The 

 fisheries in the more northerly regions of the coast do not reach a peak until 

 mid-summer but have a full five months of productivity from May to 

 October. The seasonal catch of hard crabs in the major producing counties 

 of the State, based on the monthly percentage of an 8-year catch, is given 

 in Table 2. Beaufort County surpasses all other sections in the volume of 

 catch. 



3. Additional information on the commercial blue crab fishery and industry will be found in 

 Roberts (1905) and Churchill (1919-a). 



