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BLUE CRAB GLOSSARY
Ameson Michaelis Disease - A protozoa which infects muscle tissue. Found in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic. Causes meat to be fluffy in texture
Antenna - Long appendages found behind the eye stalks
Antennule - Used to smell and taste, found below eyes
Appendages - Five pairs of legs
Apron - Abdominal covering on the bottom side of the crab
Atlantic blue crab - Scientific name - Callinectes sapidus
Autotomy - Self-amputation whereby a crab will sever one of its own appendages to escape a predator. These are re-grown or regenerated.
Back fin - The swimming or paddle fin. Also the term used for the lump white crab meat
Ballies - Sponge crab
Bank traps - Illegal almost everywhere, traps placed in shallow water near a bank used to catch peeler crabs
Bare potting - An unbaited trap is placed in deep water where there is no grass or any other hiding place. Crabs enter the traps tp hide and shed. Only done for a couple of weeks in the Spring
Bitter crab disease -AKA Hematodinium perezi. A disease which gives a bitter taste to crabs and is almost 100% fatal to crabs but harmless to humans.
Buckram - Soft crab just past the paper shell stage
Buckshot disease - Same as salt and pepper disease
Buffalo crab - Soft crab with the claws or legs missing
Bull lip - As the name implies it is a lip from a bull and is used for bait
Busted sook - Crab emerging from its shell
Callinectes sapidus - Scientific name of the Atlantic blue crab. Callinectes is Greek for beautiful swimmer and sapidus is Latin for tasty or savory
Carapace - Top part of the shell or hard covering of the blue crab
Carcinonemertes Carcinophilia Disease - A worm which infects almost 1/4 of sponge crabs in the Atlantic and the Gulf.Water temperature; ecological conditions and salinity all effect outbreaks of crab diseases. Many diseases are passed from crab to crab as they feed upon one another. Infected crabs can become blind or paralyzed.
Host crab populations have been infected in the Bay, California, British Columbia, Alaska, Scotland and the Atlantic seaboard.
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Cartilage - Wraps around muscles that help with movement
Channeler - Large male crab that remains in the deeper channels of the bay or river
Cheliped - First pair of legs carrying the claws
Chicken necker - A regional term (sometimes derogatory) denoting someone who fishes for crabs using chicken necks for bait, also used to describe non-resident weekend crabbers
Crab float - A wooden pen for crab storage on the water
Crabbing dredge - Used during the winter months, this device 'digs' crabs from the mud.
Crisfield prom shoes - A slang term for the boots worn by watermen
Crustacea - Class of invertebrates to which the Atlantic blue crab belongs
Cull Ring - A device resembling a large rubber washer surrounding an opening in a crab trap which provides an escape for under sized crabs
Dead man’s fingers - the gills of the crab
Deadrise workboat - The measurement of the angle between the bottom of a boat and its widest beam is deadrise. A vessel with a 0º deadrise has a flat bottom, high numbers indicate deep V shaped hulls
Doubler - A large male crab carrying a sexually mature female; a pair of mating crabs; buck and rider or carrier. The female crab could most likely be a soft crab
Dwarf female - A small but sexually mature female blue crab
Ebb tide - Outgoing tide
Ecdysis - Molting. The act of shedding the old shell for a larger one. The shedding process is repeated up to 25 times during a crab’s life span,
which seldom exceeds two to three years. Small crabs will shed about every 4 weeks; larger males
will shed every 7 to 8 weeks.
Eelgrass - A submerged long-leafed monocotyledonous marine plant (Zostera marina) of the eelgrass family that is abundant along the Atlantic coast
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Fat crab - Crab that is nearing the end of its intermolt cycle
Flood tide - Incoming tide
Forbay - The commercial crab pot has upper and lower chambers with a partition (forbay) separating the lower and upper chambers, so the crabs cannot easily get out after they enter the pot for the bait.
Gills - Eight on each side of crab body used for breathing
Green crab - Crab between molts; non-peeler crab. Also a predator crab.
Hard crab - Crab with a fully hardened shell, usually within four days after molting
Hematodinium Perezi Disease - A parasitic infestation which although harmless to humans, evidence suggests that Hematodinium is 100% fatal for crabs infected with this parasite but harmless to humans.
Hepatopancreas (mustard) - The large internal organ which secrets digestive enzymes. It also absorbs and stores digested food. Calcium and phosphate are also stored here during the intermolt period. It also functions in the capacity of cleaning the crab’s blood stream. In some crab species, high levels of PCBs have been found in the Hepatopancreas.
Herpeslike Virus Disease - Effects hemocytes and causes death in 1 to 2 months
Hauling water - Pulling up empty pots or traps
Instar - Period between molts
Jelly Back - soft crab
Jenny - Female crab also called a sook
Jimmy - Male blue crab
Jimmy potting - Male crab is attached to a line inside a trap and allowed to swim in hopes of attracting and catching a female
Jon Boat - A versatile aluminum boat measuring from 16 to 21 feet in length powered by an outboard motor having a very shallow draft.
Keeper - A hard crab with a minimum legal length
Killie - A ring of wire with bait attached. Also a term for minnows.
Lagenidium Callinectes Disease - Fungus infecting eggs
Lateral spines - Largest points on either side of the carapace
Length - What most people would call the width. It is measured across the top shell between the two outermost spines of the crab's body section
Lick - Term used to describe dredging for crabs; a dredge is drawn across the bottom to catch wintering crabs or summer soft crabs
Lump - Largest pieces of meat. Found near the backfin
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Megalopa - Final larval stage, between zoea and crab stage
Microphallus Disease - A disease effecting tissue which is non-fatal. Pepper spot disease
Molt - See ecdysis
Mustard - see hepatopancreas
Neap tide - A neap tide is of medium range and occurs during the first and third quarters of the moon
Number ones - The largest crabs
Painted fingernails - Female crab’s red claws
Paper shell - Soft crab about 9 to 12 hours after molting. Shell is slightly stiff
Paramoeba Perniciosa Disease - Gray crab disease - A protozoa infecting tissues and blood. Widely found in the Spring in the Atlantic and the Gulf. Parasitic amoebae progressively invade the connective tissues along the midgut, the antennal gland, Y organ and the haemal spaces in the gills.
Peeler - Shedding crabs caught by soft-shell fishermen
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Pepper spot disease - See salt and pepper disease
Picking - Eating a steamed crab by picking out the meat
Pink Sign - Dot which appears on a crab's back fin prior to molting
Point to Point - The measurement used in legally sizing crabs. The measure is from the end of one lateral spine to the end of the opposite lateral spine.
Prime - Ready for the market
Rebar - A REinforced steel BAR used on the bottom of commercial crabber's traps
Reolike Virus Disease - Effects tissue and nerves. Fatal in 3 days
Rhabdolike VirusA Disease - Effects nerve cells causing stress related mortality
Rider - A rider is a crab sitting on top of the trap which has not had time to get inside.
Sally crab - Young, immature, female crab. Has a V-shaped apron; she-crab
Salt and pepper disease - A crab which has been infected with parasites which appear as small dark specks throughout its meat. See. Also called buckshot disease, pepper spot disease, or pepper crabs
Scap net - A net dipped into the water to catch a crab swimming or resting on the bottom.
Scapping - Dragging a net through grass beds holding a light to attract crabs.
Seine - A large net with sinkers on one side and floats on the other which hangs vertically in the water. Used to enclose fish and crabs when the ends are pulled together
She-crab - immature female crab
Shucker - soft crab
Skiff - A skiff is a small flat-bottomed open boat with a pointed bow and square stern, used mainly by fisherman. Skiffs are usually only able to hold one or two people and can use oars, a sail or a motor for propulsion
Slabs - The biggest soft crabs
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Snood - A six inch dropper line used to attach bait when trotlining
Soft crab or soft shelled crab - Crab which has shed its shell
Sook - Sexually mature female crab also called a Jenny
Spring tide - Greater than average range between high and low tide that occurs twice each synodic period around the times of a new and full moon when tidal actions of the Sun and moon are nearly in the same direction
Sponge crab - Female crab which is carrying eggs under her apron
Swimmerets - Under female apron where eggs are carried
Terminal molt - The last molt
Testes - Part of male reproductive system found on top of hepatopancreas
Tinker bells - Crab boots worn by commercial crabbers. Sometimes called Crisfield prom shoes
Urosporidium Crescens Disease - Parasite causing pepper spot disease
Vibrio Parahemolyticus Disease - Effects blood and nerve cells and can be fatal to crabs in 72 hours. Found in Chincoteague and Chesapeake bays.
Walker - name used for peeler crabs without mates
Water galls - The term used to describe a crab which is hollow and full of water when cooked. A trait of some crabs.
Whiteys - The term used to describe a crab which is hollow and full of water when cooked. A trait of some crabs
Zoe - The larva that hatches from the egg
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