page_title: Callinectes sapidus
section_title: Range of fisheries
hierarchical_section_title: Callinectes sapidus / Commercial importance / Range of fisheries
caption_attribution_description: From Obrycki's crab house Baltimore M.D. 1996
context_page_description: Callinectes sapidus, the Blue Crab, Atlantic Blue Crab, or regionally as the Chesapeake blue crab, is a species of crab native to the waters of the western Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, and introduced internationally.
  C. sapidus is of considerable culinary and economic importance in the USA, particularly in Louisiana, North Carolina, the Chesapeake Bay, Delaware, and New Jersey. It is the Maryland state crustacean and the state's largest commercial fishery.
context_section_description: Commercial fisheries for C. sapidus exist along much of the Atlantic coast of the United States, and in the Gulf of Mexico. Although the fishery has been historically centered on the Chesapeake Bay, contributions from other localities are increasing in importance. In the past two decades, the majority of commercial crabs have been landed in four states: Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Louisiana. Weight and value of harvests since 2000 are listed below.
caption: Singer Martha Reeves fake eating a blue crab
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