A True Blue Beauty

Type: Tidal
Region: Southern
Location: Patuxent River at Battle Creek

I caught this strange crab while running my trot line in the Patuxent River at Battle Creek on father�s day. Thought you might like to post the pic. I donated the crab in excellent condition to the Calvert Marine Museum, they said that they are going to put it on display in an aquarium for viewing.

DNR Response: A blue lobster or brilliant blue colored blue crab is caused by a genetic defect causing an imbalance of proteins in the shell of lobsters and crabs that are responsible for normal coloration. The excessive amount of one of the color proteins can form a blue complex that occurs about once in every 2 million lobsters. Lobsters can also be yellow or orange which occurs about once in every 30 million lobsters; albino color in lobsters occurs about once in 100 million lobsters. Lobsters may also exhibit these abnormal colors in a situation where only half of the lobster is abnormally colored and the other half normal. No matter what color a lobster or crab is, they all will turn red when coloration proteins break down during cooking.