The Dungeness Crab, Cancer magister, is a Pacific water edible crab. The Dungeness Crab is a member of Phylum Arthropoda and is of the Class Crustacean. The Dungeness Crab is typically light brown with a blue trim and often exhibits a light orange color on its bottom side. The crab has short eyestalks with small orbits, with an uneven broadly oval carapace. The Dungeness Crab can be found naturally in coastal waters from Santa Barbara, California, to the Pribilof Islands, Alaska. Dungeness Crabs are typically found in estuaries from Morrow Bay to Puget Sound, Washington. Figures One and Two (See Appendix) respectively show Puget Sound and Padilla Bay Dungeness Crab habitats and Eelweed habitats that are associated with Dungeness Crab populations. The Dungeness Crab often moves into eelgrass meadows in order to molt in the spring. Eelgrass meadows often form under piers and docks where the lack of sunlight helps them form.
The Life Cycle of the Dungeness Crab exhibits four developmental stages:
Mating & Egg Development (0-4 Months)
The Life Cycle history of the Dungeness Crab is well documented. According to Higgins and Hastings (1997) the females extrude up to 2 million eggs in the fall, larvae are hatched in the winter, and due to pelagic dispersal of larvae in spring, juvenile crabs settle near shore in late spring and early summer (1431). Dungeness Crabs are typically between 2-3 years in age before they reproduce. Both reproduction and molting capacity diminishes with age. Because of their enormous popularity with diners, Dungeness Crab males are legal to harvest when they reach a size of 159-mm carapace width at about 4 years of age (Higgins et al, 1997, 1431). Adult crabs cannibalize juvenile crabs and human harvesting causes survivorship of crabs to decline with increasing age and size. Higgins and Hastings (1997) argue that “Intrinsic regulatory methods can cause fluctuations in population density [and] early invest...