60 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
were placed in the hibernating pens where they will remain until the 
following spring.. Experiments are in progress to determine whether 
the young terrapins can be carried over the winter in the unheated 
rearing house by covering them with damp seaweed and maintaining 
a low even temperature by protection from direct sunlight. If this 
is possible it will eliminate considerable labor in transferring the 
young terrapins to and from the hibernating pens and will afford 
complete protection from rats and mice. 
During May, 11,000 young terrapins of the 1935 brood which had 
been reared to an age of approximately 9 months were distributed 
throughout the coastal waters of the South Atlantic region as fol- 
lows: Virginia, 3,000; North Carolina, 3,500; South Carolina, 3,000; 
and Georgia, 1,500. The actual planting of the young terrapins in 
brackish-water areas was carried out by the conservation departments 
of the several States and if continued and increased each year should 
help to maintain a supply of this valuable seafood. Progress is being 
made in the development of a cooperative program whereby the 
various States receiving terrapins will provide funds for continuing 
and increasing the artificial propagation of this species. 
During the past 5 years the Beaufort laboratory has produced for 
distribution an average of 10,520 young terrapins per year. The cost 
of rearing these animals has ranged from 314 to 5 cents per terrapin 
per year which includes the labor and expense of feeding the brood 
stock, repairing breeding pounds, collection and care of young, ete. 
Previous to 1931 the production of young terrapins over a 5-year 
period averaged approximately 5,000 animals per year. The reason 
for thé increase since that time appears to be the purchase of addi- 
tional brood stock during the spring of 1930, which included 546 
adult females that began laying in 1931 and produced an increased 
vield of approximately 5,000 to 7,000 young per year. Previous 
terrapin-cultural experiments indicated that in general an average 
annual production of 12 eggs per female per year may be expected, 
a figure which is in agreement with results obtained in this work 
during the past 5 years. 
The spawning of the blue crab—At the request of the North 
Carolina Department of Conservation and members of the local 
crab industry, studies of the spawning of the blue crab were made 
at the Beaufort laboratory as a basis for regulation of the industry. 
The crab fishermen desired permission to catch and steam the female 
crabs which were carrying eggs or “sponge.” A very high percent- 
age of the crabs caught during the spring season were females, 
which the fishermen contended would spawn only once and die 
soon thereafter. Experiments conducted in laboratory tanks and 
outdoor pounds showed that each female crab developed and hatched 
3 separate large batches of eggs during the period from May 26 
to July 18. The period of hatching in each case ranged from 12 
to 16 days. A short time after the third spawning all of the crabs 
died, apparently owing to termination of the life cycle after repro- 
duction. The studies clearly indicate that protection of mature 
female crabs is advisable both before and after the first sponge is 
formed on the abdomen. Similar studies were undertaken in the 
late fall with crabs from winter dredging areas in Virginia, to de- 
termine what percentage of the crabs caught in this fishery are 
