This means the crab will shed in about 

 two weeks. 



Gradually this white line will turn 

 pink and then red. A red-sign peeler is 

 only two days from shedding. 



A crab is "rank" just before its shell 

 cracks and it's a "buster" once the soft 

 crab begins backing out of its old shell. 

 A crab may grow as much as two 

 inches after it sheds. The crab appears 

 almost lifeless after it moults because 

 of the tremendous energy it takes for 

 the crab to withdraw from the old 

 shell. When in its soft shell stage, the 

 crab is most vulnerable to predators. 

 After six or seven hours, the shell 



Photo by Neil Caudle 



begins to harden to the consistency of 

 paper. Hence, the name papershell 

 crab. After two days, a crab again has a 

 hard shell. 



Another interesting aspect of 

 shedding is mating. A female crab can 

 only mate during her last moult, when 

 she reaches maturity. An immature 

 female crab or she-crab has a V-shaped 

 apron, while a sexually mature female 

 crab or "sook" has a semi-circular 

 apron. But it is only during the change 

 from the V-shaped apron to the semi- 

 circle apron that the female can mate. 



During an elaborate courtship, the 

 male and female wave their arms and 



E T 



legs to catch each other's attention. 

 Finally, the female backs herself 

 beneath the male. He grabs her with 

 his- walking legs and cradles her 

 beneath him until she is ready to 

 moult. Crabbers call these mating 

 crabs "doublers" or "buck and rider." 

 The male may carry the female for two 

 to three days and travel long distances 

 before the moulting occurs. When the 

 female is ready to shed, the male makes 

 a protective cage around her with his 

 body. Once the female has shed and the 

 mating has occurred, the male again 

 will cradle the female until her shell is 

 hard. 



Shedding crabs- 

 A 24-hour job 



Murray Bridges may enjoy crab- 

 bing, but his real love when it comes to 

 crabs are his peelers. Row after row of 

 concrete trays stand outside his 

 Collington home for shedding out 

 peeler crabs. 



Bridges began a small peeler opera- 

 tion several years ago when crabbers 

 were just beginning to shed crabs in 

 trays over land. Chesapeake Bay crab- 

 bers have been shedding crabs for 

 years in wooden trays, called "floats," 

 which they staked in the water. The 

 crabbers would have to paddle their 

 skiffs alongside the trays to remove the 

 soft crabs. But scientists learned that 

 crabs would shed just as well in trays 

 or tanks on land if they had a constant 

 supply of water from a nearby creek or 

 estuary. And that's just the kind of 

 operation Bridges has set up. 



The prime peeler month is May. 

 About the first of the month, Bridges 

 begins jimmy potting. He baits his 

 traps with several large jimmy crabs in 

 the parlor section of pots. The jimmies 

 attract the she-crabs that did not 

 make their final mating moult the 

 previous year. 



"The jimmies can attract 20 to 30 

 rank female peelers in a single pot," 

 Bridges says. "You know how they say 

 women always chase men during leap 

 year. Well, every spring we have a leap 

 year with crabs. Those females go right 

 to the males," he says with a chuckle. 



But jimmy potting only lasts until 

 about mid-June. After that, for a 

 reason unknown, jimmy potting no 

 longer attracts female peelers. 



