Home Tournaments Calendar Weather Merchandise Sponsors

Go Back   Spearboard.com - The World's Largest Spearfishing Diving Boating Social Media Forum > General Topics (Non-regional) > General Spearfishing & Diving Discussion

General Spearfishing & Diving Discussion This is where you post to discuss general spearfishing topics that could apply to any region.

 
 
Thread Tools Rate Thread Display Modes
Prev Previous Post   Next Post Next
Old 10-21-2007, 06:57 PM   #1
smilinmatt
Matt Brueckner
 
smilinmatt's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Apollo Beach, FL
Age: 52
Posts: 1,243
Stone Crabs - One Claw or Two?

Anyone know what's best for the overall crab population? Does taking one claw allow more crabs to survive and reproduce? Does taking both claws allow for more healthy, non-harvested crabs to produce even more crabs? I read one study over twenty years ago that seemed to indicated that it didn't matter whether you took one or two, just that you break it right. In holes that have a molted female, it's rare to find a male with only one claw (and I don't think I've ever seen a clawless male with a recently molted female).

Personally, on crabs that have two legal claws, I take the crusher claw. If it either breaks poorly, or it "shocks" the crab (sometimes even a clean break incapacitates the crab), I'll take the second claw - figuring a clawless dead crab is one less crab I'll potentially harm. But I have no ill will towards people that always take all legal claws.

When I go crabbing, more often than not, I get a gallon limit - so the one or two claw harvest does affect the number of overall crabs I encounter. With the crabs I get, I'd guess that my 30 or so claws would come from between 20-25 crabs if I took all legal claws, or obviously 30 claws if I took only a single claw. So is it better to get my limit from 20-25 crabs or 30 crabs?

BTW, a lot of the crabs in our area (Tampa) are already gravid (it's not typical this early, and this probably affects the divers more than the trappers). Remember they're illegal and show some restraint on the gravid females. I know it's not Spearboard members, but there's a lot of gravid females with missing claws right now.
smilinmatt is offline   Reply With Quote
 

Bookmarks

Thread Tools
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 04:07 PM.


The World's Largest Spearfishing Diving Social Media Forum Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2002 - 2014 Spearboard.com