[Sca-cooks] period crab recipes

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius adamantius.magister at verizon.net
Tue Jun 20 21:33:47 PDT 2006


On Jun 21, 2006, at 12:40 AM, Stefan li Rous wrote:

> Drakey mentioned:
>   <<< Nope... Never seen softshell crabs here. I dont know if it's
> illegal to take them here - I do know we have crabbing
> seasons, bag limits, and size limits, and no crabs with roe. >>>
>
> How do you know whether a crab has roe before splitting it open? I
> could see a rule about not taking female crabs during certain seasons
> or some such, because it should be possible to tell the difference
> between male and female crabs without killing them, but how would you
> tell without harming the crab or roe, whether a female crab had roe
> or not?

The female carries its eggs in a spongy mass under the tail flap.  
Remember that the tail flap is comparable to the tail of a lobster,  
except it's kind of vestigial, not used for swimming, and normally  
"worn" more tightly folded against the underside of the carapace.  As  
the eggs grow, the "sponge", which is bright orange, kinda sticks out  
like a pillow stuffed into a pocket just a bit too small. I believe  
mature, egg-bearing female blue crabs are actually called "sponge crabs"

Adamantius 



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