The Blue Crab

The Chesapeake Bay produces the largest amount of crabs in the United States. The Blue Crab or Callinectes sapidus, are mainly found in the deep waters of the open Bay among the waving strands of the bay grasses. The Blue Crab takes advantage of its' opportunities when it comes to food and feeds on live and dead fish, crabs, clams, snails, eelgrass, sea lettuce, and decayed vegetation and other foods which it is able to consume. Blue Crabs grow by the process of molting in which they shed or take off their outer hard shell and the soft shell under it eventually becomes another hard shell to help protect it from dangers which lurk and try to feed off the crabs. The difference between the male and female blue crabs can be told by the abdominals of the crabs. The male crab contains a long abdomen, as for the female crabs they contain the fitted abdomens. The Blue Crabs male life cycle first begins as a zoea, the youngest form of the cycle; the second form is the megalops which is followed by juvenile which is considered to be the immature male. The final form of the male life cycle is the mature male in which the blue crab is fully grown. The female blue crab is similar for the first two forms but differs in the last two forms. After becoming a megalops a female blue crab changes to an immature female crab and to the final form which is the mature female crab.

Many people consider the Blue Crab to play a large role only in increasing the profits received by Virginia and Maryland due to the selling of the blue crabs. Though the crabs do help Virginia and Maryland make profits it also plays a great role in the food web of the Chesapeake Bay. The Blue Crab plays a huge role due to its ability to almost consume any item but also can feed on many other plants and animals. It also helps the cycle by being a food source or a prey to many other organisms or aquatic life such as some sharks, eels, drum, spot, trout, cownose, sting rays and off course many humans. Unfortunatly, over the past several years the blue crab population has been continuously decreasing which concerns many because if the crabs soon become extinct how will other predators of the blue crab survive? Also how much of an impact will this be on the financial incomes of Virginia and Maryland? Another question that comes to mind is what is causing the blue crab population to deacrease? The blue crabs play an important role for the economy, the Chesapeake Bay aquatic life, and also for science by increasing the information about the Chesapeake Bay as well as the organisms which live in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

As scientists have studied and continue to study is the way the Chesapeake Bay Watershed is affecting the way the aquatic organisms live their lives. The Blue Crab supports the Chesapeake Bay of being healthier than expected due to it helping the cycle continue to circulate and as it continues to circulate the organisms which consume other living things which contaminate the water which keeps it cleaner as well as healthier than it is expected to be. Though the water does become a little bit healthier it does not become healthy enough for all the organisms to be able to live an ordinary life cycle and easily survive. As time passes by and the life cycle continues there are several organisms which interfere with the cycle such as the algae which is harmful to many aquatic plants and animals. This alga plays quite a large role in decreasing the population of the blue crabs as well as other organisms. The reason this algae is harmful is because it intoxicates the Chesapeake Bay water which leads to intoxicated animals and obviously to the death of the animals. Another way algae interferes with the cycle is that in some occasions there is a high abundance of algae which leads to the blocking of the sun and with out sun the plants are unable to grow and they die and this harms the blue crabs as well as other plant eaters. Also the blocking of the sun may kill fish and also causes there to be nasty odors. The alga has not only harmed the aquatic plants, animals and the Chesapeake