Sidney Crabs In Trouble?

[Hoochiebob]

With the heavy crabbing pressure in the Sidney area I thought the population of dungeoness were wiped out.Yes it appears they are,but not by the fishing...
While on a pleasure cruise this summer I stopped to stroll the beach on James Island.All along the high tide line were crab carcasses,of all sizes and intact.Every three paces I would come across another dead crab,and even found an immature halibut washed up.
This last weekend I was diving off James Island wharf and was shocked to see more dead crabs-they were everywhere.One live crab for every 50 dead ones.
This seems to be a serious problem to me but dont know if it is all that unusual.Has anyone else noticed this or have any clues as to why?
Will try to get pictures this weekend
Hooch

 

[Last Chance]

THe sound like molts to me. Break a dead one open and see if there are guts in it.

 

[Bodie]

I'm assuming we're talking about Dungeness Crab here...

My wife and I do a lot of crabbing at Sidney Spit, and it seems moulting has been finished for a month or two - all of the crabs we've caught the last few weeks were hard and full - but crab shells are pretty hard, and probably take a long time to break down.

Based on what we catch, the population isn't what it was 10 years ago, but there are a lot fewer commercial lines out there than in past years, and our numbers are going up again.

 

[Lipripper]

They do move around quite a bit as well(migrate), or they can also dig themsleves into the sand and stay for quite a while.... and I mean a while, generally they do this if they lose a limb because it stops them from bleeding to death

 

[Hoochiebob]

Thanks for the input everyone.Tommorow I will take a closer look at one and see if they are moults or not

 

[Hoochiebob]

Wow!Didn't know that the shells actually closed back up after.
Learning something new every day because of you fellow SFBC'ers.
Thanks for the info all of you!

Hooch