Welcome to CrabsCount.com Take a moment to look around and learn more abou† the invasive Asian (or Japanese) shore crab , Hemigrapsus sanguineus. Mission: Crabs Count is a project for middle school students to participate in on-going population counts and research about the non-indigenous Asian Shore Crab. About us: Crabs Count is organized by middle school teachers and volunteers from the US Fish and Wildlife Friends Association of the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge in Connecticut. Currently the project brings students on field trips to the refuge at Outer Island located off the coast of Stony Creek, CT. The project managers, Virginia Baltay and Elisabeth Taylor, have developed protocols and materials for students to learn scientific field methods for investigating the invasive crabs. Description: Asian shore crabs are small. On an average the width of their carapace (shell) is about 1.5 inches. Generally they are a mottled dark brown in color and have distinct bands or stripes on their legs. The juvenile crabs appear almost black and are less than .5 inches across the carapace. The females can be identified by a their wider abdomen while the males have a dark patched tail flap (that some say looks like a lighthouse). Male crabs have a fleshy, bulb-like structure at the base of the moveable finger of the claws.
Photo of male crab with tail flap www.mikedelaney.org New world habitat: Asian shore crabs live in the rocky intertidal zone along the coast of New England and the mid-Atlantic states. They make their homes under rocks that usually have some attached seaweed and can be found easily at low tide under moist rocks.. Diet: The Asian shore crab has a varied diet consisting of plants and animals. The crabs devour red, green, and brown algae as well as eel grass . They also eat barnacles, blue mussles, sand worms and assorted arthropods. For this reason they have been called opportunistic as they have been replacing the European green crab. This project is funded by the Nature of Learning Grant Program of The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
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