On a daily basis I check our five crab traps and take all of the crabs inside the trap back to the lab. Our traps are currently located in Seabrook, Hampton, and 3 near the Jackson Estuarine Lab. Once back at the lab, I sort the males and females in order to get a sex ratio from each location. The females I have been giving to an oyster project or to Winn Watson's tank. The males I keep and sort depending on if I think they are premolt or imminent. The premolt, male crabs go inside one tank and the imminent, male crabs go into individual containers that are labelled with the date and numbers. The crabs in the individual containers are photographed every other day in order to see what they look like when they are about to molt. Below is a photo of one of our five traps.
In addition to doing sex ratios at each location and seeing the morphological signs of molting, I have also been foraging for green crabs with Dr. Bradt. I even brought a few down to Gloucester where they cooked them for us. Today I brought about 12 soft shell crabs, that I found near the boat ramp on Adam's Point Road, to a restaurant called the Joinery in Newmarket. I watched the chef, Brendan, prepare the crabs by removing their eyes, gills, and sex organs by flipping open the crab's abdomen and cutting it off. Below is a picture of the soft shell crab that was prepared for me at Tonno restaurant in Gloucester. It was fried, put over a relish, and drizzled with spicy mayo-similar to what you are given with sushi.
-Meghan
