APPENDIX III APPENDIX III 
The 1975 dungeness crab catch of 16.0 million pounds 
worth $10.3 million, was about the same as in 1974, but the 
value increased 4 percent. The catch from these 2 years 
seems to indicate a stabilization of the declining dungeness 
crab catch which began in 1970. 
Products and processing 
Blue crabs are caught and marketed in both the hard 
shell and soft shell stages. Many crabs, known as peelers, 
are caught just prior to molting. Soft shell crabs are con- 
sidered a delicacy and bring higher prices. Almost the en- 
tire body of this crab may be eaten after cooking; the 
gills, abdomen, and sometimes the face are removed. 
Hard shell crabs may be sold live, whole cooked or 
steamed. When steamed the meat is picked from the shell, and 
either packed into containers, refrigerated, and sold as 
fresh crabmeat, or canned, pasteurized, and refrigerated. 
Crabmeat is marketed as lump meat--whole lumps from the large 
body muscles which operate the swimming legs; flake meat-- 
small pieces of white meat from the body; flake and lump--a 
combination of the two; and claw meat--a brownish tinted meat 
from the claws. Picked crabmeat is used in convenience foods, 
such.as crab cakes, deviled crab cutlets, bite-sized deviled 
crab, crab imperial, crab soup, and crab balls. 
Pacific coast crabmeat is primarily sold frozen although 
it is also sold canned. Frozen crab is marketed in the shell, 
as whole leg sections or claws or out of the shell as meat. 
King and tanner crab is sold canned, frozen, and fresh, while 
dungeness crab is usually sold fresh. 
Crabmeat picked by machine involves less labor but has 
several disadvantages. Machine-picked meat (1) contains shell 
fragments, (2) is broken in small pieces, (3) is salty, as a 
result of the brine used to separate the meat and shell frag— 
ments, and (4) yields less crabmeat per pound of whole crab 
than that obtained by hand picking. These factors contribute 
to the low demand for machine-picked crabmeat. 
Markets 
Crabs, are highly regional and the market declines rapidly 
as distance increases from the landing site. Therefore, crabs 
are virtually unknown in the interior of the United States. 
The Largest markets for Atlantic blue crab are in the 
shore areas of Virginia, Maryland, and New Jersey, and the 
cities of Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia, and New York. 
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