I've extensively written about (and eaten) the blue crabs of Bay Point. I'd heard about stone crabs being caught in Sugarloaf Sound as well. And a casual examination of literature re: the crabs of the Florida Keys, tends to only mention those two, as if that's all there was. I thought I knew the crabs of Bay Point, until Thursday night on the eastern side of Bay Point when Kate shined her spotlight into the water and Grace and I immediately burst out with excitement for the same reason: These were entirely new species of crabs we were finding here.
There was one of these in the water, and one in Kate's crab trap,
See the rounded body, the back legs that definitely are not swimmers? This is not one of our bluish friends, and certainly not a stone crab either. Grace and I's first guesses were both the same, what the heck is a dungeness crab doing here? This is most likely a jonah crab or other cancrid. It was mind-blowing to meet new crabs in what we thought were familiar waters, but we weren't done yet. Kate scooped her net into the water and landed this crazy beast:
Just wow. This is some sort of Atlantic rock crab? It's going to take us days to nail down exact genera and species names for these guys.
[ Update: It's a Shame-Faced crab, genus calappa ]
So, now we know. The crabs of Bay Point are more diverse than we'd ever imagined, which makes it incredibly lucky that I stumbled upon the tasty and familiar blues with my first crabbing efforts.
-Chris