Alan Davidson

Blue Crab

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Food
Oxford Companion to Food

By Alan Davidson

Published 2014

  • About

blue crab Callinectes sapidus, the most famous American crab, has a natural range which extends down the eastern seaboard from Delaware Bay to Florida and beyond, but is mainly caught in the Chesapeake Bay area. It has been introduced into the E. Mediterranean and is now part of the marine fauna there.

Adults are large, up to more than 12 cm (5") in width. However, at the annual National Hard Crab Derby, held at Crisfield in Maryland, the champion crab-pickers manage to ‘pick’ (remove all the meat from) a whole crab in about 40 seconds.