Crab bycatch while prawning

[buccaneer]

Was recently prawning and found a bunch of small crabs in the traps. Didn't take any pics but they were about 3" across and looked alot like a rock with there legs curled up tight to the body.

I just did a google search and they are probably box crabs and the fishing regs say 1 per day. Threw them all back but just wondering if this is quite common to find when prawning?

What do you guys do with them? Don't know if they're tasty or what but 1 per day wouldn't be much of a feed as they are pretty small.

 

[Fish Assassin]

Those are box crabs and they get much larger and are very tasty.

 

[buccaneer]

They were def. very neat looking creatures. Curiousity kind of got me now. Will have to throw a crab trap down 300' and see what happens!
Also noticed a species of crab called the puget sound king crab, though not related to alaska king crab.

FA, how big do box crab get?

 

[Fish Assassin]

Brown box crab
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Brown box crab


Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Crustacea
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Infraorder: Anomura
Family: Lithodidae
Genus: Lopholithodes
Species: L. foraminatus
Binomial name
Lopholithodes foraminatus
(Stimpson, 1859)
The brown box crab, Lopholithodes foraminatus, is a king crab that lives from Kodiak Island, Alaska to San Diego, California.[1] at depths of 0–547 metres (0–1,795 ft).[2] It reaches a carapace length of 150 millimetres (5.9 in), and feeds on bivalves and detritus. It often lies buried in the sediment, and two foramens in the chelipeds allow water in to the gill chamber for respiration.[1] The gill chamber is also sometimes used by the commensal fish Careproctus to hold its eggs.[3]

 

[buccaneer]

Found this: http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/csas/Csas/DocREC/2001/RES2001_158e.pdf

If anyones interested...

 

[cohochinook]

I have got on top of prawn traps but never inside. Never kept one, so don't know how they're to eat.

 

[Finished Business]

I have spent some time researching box crab and the best methods traps to target them...I haven't put any effort into the water yet but hopefully soon I will be giving it a go. They have never been commercially fished and there are very few studies on them that I could find. I was thinking this weekend of making an effort to target them. People say they are pretty tasty, but require a more thorough cleaning than dungees from what I hear.

Great link Bucanneer. Thank You.

 

[hambone]

Heres a little guy

 

[hambone]

some of the other common and not so common by-catch in prawn traps:

 

[hambone]

 

[hambone]

sorry for getting a little off topic.... about box crab, I've heard you can catch them quite shallow further up the coast. To get a full size box crab in a trap you'd need an enormous door! There are plenty of them small enough to fit in a prawn sized door, so obviously the bigger ones are down there.

 

[Fish Assassin]

To get a full size box crab in a trap you'd need an enormous door! There are plenty of them small enough to fit in a prawn sized door, so obviously the bigger ones are down there.

Why not just a crab trap down deep? They grow to 6.9 inches so I'd think they would go thru a normal crab door.

 

[hambone]

Why not just a crab trap down deep? They grow to 6.9 inches so I'd think they would go thru a normal crab door.

I must be thinking of something else, I thought they got HUGE... I remember hearing of a guy on Stuart Island that successfully got them, I forget the details but I know he didn't need to try anything too deep. Maybe the current in that area changes things a little in terms of what depth they live at.

The next person who goes prawning should clip on a crab trap to their string and report back lol.

 

[Finished Business]

Box crabs from my research get large enough that they would have little chance to get into a normal dungy trap. Its not so much the width, but the hieght of the crab. They are quite thick.

 

[wayne.mck]

I must be thinking of something else, I thought they got HUGE... I remember hearing of a guy on Stuart Island that successfully got them, I forget the details but I know he didn't need to try anything too deep. Maybe the current in that area changes things a little in terms of what depth they live at.

The next person who goes prawning should clip on a crab trap to their string and report back lol.

They do indeed get HUGE. I hope I got the pictures attached correctly. These are Puget Sound King crab which is a close relative of the Box Crab. The white 5 gallon pail has just the legs and pinchers of 2 crab. My understanding is the Puget Sound lives on rock and the Box lives in mud. We were getting the small Box crab prawning with my Father and after he tasted the Puget Sound he made huge traps to target the Box crabs but never did get any. all he got in his traps were Roch Fish.

 

[Peahead]

When I was diving regularily I would see both the Box Crabs and Puget Sound King crabs. I have seen massive Puget Sound King Crabs but the Box Crabs have been smaller.

The puget Sound King Crab, Lopholithodes mandtii , is a species of King Crab and apparently grows bigger than the Brown Box Crab - the Box Crab is similar in look but has circular notches in the pinchers ( which look like holes when pinchers tight against body) whereas the Puget Sound King as I recall does not. The Puget Sound King Crab has a yellow/orange and purple colours and as I recall the Box Crab is much less dramatic in colour

Brown Box Crab is Lopholithodes foraminatus

 

[buccaneer]

Awesome pics guys!

I'm gonna throw a dungy trap down where I encountered the smaller box crabs. Will see what happens and report back.....

 

[buccaneer]

Another thought, throwing 2 prawn traps and 1 crab trap on one string one scotsman shouldn't be an issue am I correct?

 

[hambone]

Another thought, throwing 2 prawn traps and 1 crab trap on one string one scotsman shouldn't be an issue am I correct?

Shouldnt be an issue, unless you're hauling it up by hand

 

[Finished Business]

From my studies I've read box crab tend to hang around structure close to mud. They are territorial and like to find a structure to protect and make home. That's why catch numbers are low as they may only be a few crabs holding a chunk of rock hostage....though this is all speculation from various Fisheries reports, surveys, and what online info I can find. I plan to crab deep this weekend, hopefully I have some good news and luck!