Florida stone crab
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| Menippe mercenaria (Say, 1818) |
The Florida stone crab, Menippe mercenaria, is a crab found in the western North Atlantic, from North Carolina to Belize, including Texas, the Gulf of Mexico, Cuba and the Bahamas that is widely caught for food.
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[edit] Description
The stone crab's carapace is 3 to 3½ inches (7 to 9 cm) long and about 4 inches (10 cm) wide. Stone crabs are brownish red with gray spots and tan underneath, and have large and unequally-sized claws with black tips. Females have a larger carapace, but males usually have larger claws than females.
[edit] Ecology
Florida stone crabs prefer the bottoms of bays, oyster reefs, and rock jetties where they can burrow or find refuge from predators. Juveniles do not usually dig burrows, but instead hide among rocks or in seagrass beds. It is dark brownish-red with gray interspersed. The claws are hinged, very dark, and banded with red and yellow. Adult Florida stone crabs make burrows in mud or sand below the low tide line, lying in wait for prey.
Florida stone crabs prefer to feed on oysters and other small mollusks, polychaete worms, and other crustaceans. They will also occasionally eat seagrass and carrion. Predators that feed on stone crabs include horse conch, grouper, sea turtles, cobia, octopuses, and humans.
Sexual maturity is reached at one year. Their long spawning season lasts all spring and summer, during which time females produce 500,000 to 1 million eggs. The larvae go through six stages in about 36 days before emerging as juvenile crabs. Their lifespan is seven to eight years.
The male Florida stone crab must wait for the female to molt her exoskeleton before they can mate. After mating, the male will stay to help protect the female for several hours to several days. The female will spawn four to six times each season.
The Florida stone crab loses its limbs easily to escape from predators or tight spaces, but their limbs will grow back. When a claw is broken in the right place, the wound will quickly heal itself and very little blood is lost. If, however, the claw is broken in the wrong place, more blood is lost and the crab's chances of survival are much lower. It only takes about one year for the claw to grow back to its normal size. Each time the crab molts, the new claw grows larger.
The larger of the two claws is called the "crusher claw". The smaller claw is called the "pincer claw". If the larger crusher claw is on the right side of the crab's body, the crab is "right handed". If the crusher claw is on the left side of the crab's body, it is "left handed". Since crabs' eyes are on stalks, they can see 360°. A large crab claw can weigh up to half a pound.
[edit] Fishery
The Florida stone crabs is usually fished near jetties, oyster reefs or other rocky areas just as for blue crabs. The bodies of Florida stone crabs are relatively small and so are not eaten, but the claws are large and strong enough to break an oyster's shell.
Florida stone crabs are available for harvest from October 15 until May 15. No harvesting may be done outside these dates, and only one claw at a time may be taken and that the crab be returned to the ocean to grow another claw for later years. To be kept, claws must be 2.75 inches (70 mm) long, measured from the tips of the immovable finger to the first joint. During the 1960s, the species was almost exterminated by overfishing, but an eight-year moratorium was imposed and the population was restored.
The popularity of the Florida stone crab has grown again in recent years and is considered to be one of the best varieties to eat. One restaurant in Miami Beach, Florida called Joe's Stone Crabs has based its entire business around the Florida stone crab and the waits are often as long as five hours to get a table.
The claws are prepared in the same manner as blue crab claws.
