TOP: Occasionally, the researchers catch and tag 

 sponge crabs - female crabs with eggs - in the 

 ocean. MIDDLE: Female crabs can be recognized 

 by the red tips on their claws. BOTTOM: To fasten 

 the tag securely to the crab, the tag wire is hooked 

 around the points of the crab's carapace. 



Research Program. "As long as they're in high 

 salinity, they don't care." 



According to Rittschof , female crabs can 

 lay multiple clutches of eggs — up to eight 

 clutches in 18 weeks. Spawning female crabs 

 are known to swim on falling tides when their 

 eggs are about to hatch. Crabs in estuaries 

 dominated by tides end up in the ocean by late 

 summer or early fall because they move toward 

 the ocean with each clutch of eggs. 



Mature female crabs can release eggs 

 from early spring to early fall. Some late-matur- 

 ing female crabs release only a portion of their 

 eggs before the end of spawning season, after 

 which they remain in the ocean for the winter. 



Rittschof believes that Logothetis and her 



team are tagging crabs that reached the ocean 

 during late summer and fall. 



As spring — and a new spawning season 

 — approaches and temperatures rise, the 

 female crabs in the ocean that are still fertile 

 start "moving back into high salinity areas in 

 the sound," Rittschof says. They are foraging 

 for food in the warmer estuarine waters but 

 still need higher salinity waters to release their 

 larvae. 



The ocean and the estuaries are one big 

 habitat to the crabs, Logothetis explains. 



"They're all just moving around like one 

 big bowl of soup," she says. "They're just all 

 mixing, depending on what they need." 



111! 



"Blue crabs are the number one landed 

 species in North Carolina," Logothetis stresses. 

 Blue crabs topped 2005 commercial landings 

 in both weight and monetary value according to 

 DMF statistics. Because of their importance to 

 the state's economy, the crabs need to be a well- 

 managed and understood population. 



"I think it's important, ultimately, to know 

 about this population and what it's composed 

 of," she says. 



Marc Turano, Sea Grant's blue crab 

 specialist, agrees. "There is virtually no data 

 on blue crab populations in the ocean. If these 

 projects reveal significant numbers, current 

 sampling efforts may be missing an important 

 component of the fishery," he says. 



Understanding blue crab movements can 

 only help in fishery management, Turano adds. 



The results of this project have already 

 been useful to Walter Hughes, a commercial 

 fisher from Calabash. Asked how long he has 

 been a commercial fisher, Hughes counters with 

 a quick laugh and a swift reply: "Forever." 



Hughes has caught about 15 of Logothetis' 

 tagged crabs per year for the past two years in 

 and around Ocean Isle and Sunset Beach in 

 Brunswick County, and in Little River Inlet, S.C. 

 He has changed his crabbing methods based on 

 the data from the project — especially now that 

 he knows the direction the crabs are moving. 



"For years, I thought the crabs were going 

 north," Hughes says. "Come to find out, they 

 were going south." 



"I had no way of knowing before," he 



adds. "At least I know where they are now." 



The fishers involved in the research believe 

 that other crabbers will benefit from the results 

 of the study. 



Beresoff says he has good catches, even 

 when no one else is. "It makes even a bad day a 

 good day." 



This is a worthwhile program, Hughes 

 concludes. "I'm glad they're doing it." 



During one of her weekend fishing trips 

 in early June, Jackie Anderson, a Wilmington 

 teacher, caught a tagged sponge crab — a crab 

 with eggs — in the Lockwood Folly River. 



It was an exciting find, Anderson says, 

 although "I didn't have my glasses on so I 

 couldn't read the tag." 



She called the toll-free number from her 

 Sunset Park elementary school classroom so her 

 fifth-grade class could learn about the tagging 

 project too. "It was the students," Anderson 

 admits, "who showed me how to put [the call] 

 on the speaker phone." She also looked at the 

 project's Web site with her class. 



Her students thought that capturing a 

 tagged crab was "pretty cool." But they were 

 more excited about something else. 



"The class was dying to know what the 

 reward was," Anderson recalls with a laugh. 

 These trendy pink tags can earn $5 or $20 for 

 the people who find them. 



While Anderson's students in Wilmington 

 were excited about the reward, Emme was 

 skeptical. 



"I thought it was a joke," admits the great- 

 grandmother. So she was thrilled when a letter 

 describing the project arrived, along with her $5. 



"I gave it to my daughter and told her, 'Go 

 buy bait,'" she says with a chuckle. 



It was a small reward in exchange for an 

 otherwise slow day for Emme. 



"I didn't catch many fish that day." □ 



The results of the 2005 study and 

 preliminary data from the 2006 study, as well as 

 the mfonnation to include with a tag, are on the 

 Web at: www.ncbluecrabtagging.com. 



To learn more about the N.C. Blue Crab 

 Research Program, visit North Carolina Sea 

 Grant's Web site at: www.ncseagrant.org. 



Coastwatch I Holiday 2006 I www.ncseagrant.org 21 



