The commercial harvest of Chesapeake Bay blue crabs fluctuates significantly, bouncing from about 50 million to 110 million pounds a year. A roughly estimated 30 million more pounds goes into the traps and nets of recreational crabbers. The total translates into more than 400 million individual crabs taken from the bay in a peak year and approximatelly 200 million in a poor year. When the crab catch plummets, as many say it has this summer, some bay watchers are quick to blame the burgeoning demand of the market and those who catch crabs for a living. But that's getting ahead of the saga whose few tender moments are unfolding now at innumerable sites along the bottom of the Chesapeake.
Males do most of the wooing, starting with the crustacean equivalent of perfume.
In the male crab's excretions is a special scent that drifts with the currents. Females whose biological cycles are nearing readiness to mate find it irresistible. They readily crawl toward the source, and several often make their way to the same eager male. It is the only known time in blue crabs' otherwise solitary lives that they seek companionship. But, like almost everything else said about blue crabs, there are exceptions.