Wierd Crab Meat Help

Kn97

New Member
Just wondering if anyone has some insight on this. Caught a couple dungeness crabs down at jericho pier but when I took the legs off at home one of the crabs had meat that looked like mushy cooked chicken. Decided to stay on the safe side and not eat it but have never come across anything like it before.
*Photo is of RAW crab btw*
 

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Did it smell at all? Caught a couple last winter that smelled a bit off right out of the water and were horrible when cooked
 
were they kept in water? and died on way worse thing you can do is keep crab in salt water as there isnt enough oxygen in it then they die and do funky things thats why you see at stores filtered water with air being added if they dont they use up the oxygen in no time especially in a bucket
 
I have a question on this subject. Caught a red rock crab yesterday. The shell was kinda dark like it was ready for a new shell. The lungs were super brown and black. Was this thing living in an oil spill, diseased, or Just a very old crab about to die?
 

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I have a question on this subject. Caught a red rock crab yesterday. The shell was kinda dark like it was ready for a new shell. The lungs were super brown and black. Was this thing living in an oil spill, diseased, or Just a very old crab about to die?
Probably a smoker.

But seriously have never seen them that dark.
My guess would be an old crab.
 
Were we crab you will get crabs that have some of their outer shells stained up dark, especially the lower part of the legs. We call these ones shell fish farm crabs as opposed to clean crabs. The closer you drop your traps to the floating farms the more of them you are likely to catch that have been walking through the waste and feeding under the farm. Most of us prefer clean crabs but there is not any significant noticeable difference in the meat although one wonders what contaminates, if any, could end up in the meat.
 
I've pulled a few from pender harbor that looked like this. Never ended up eating them, but was always curious as to the reason for the coloring.

Screenshot_20200920-165005_Photos.jpg
 
That is similar to some I have seen in Sooke Basin. My guess is that the dark staining is related to walking through mud with organic rotting waste on the bottom. Some times it could be fish/shell fish farms but there are likely other sources like rotting bark and tree waste under booming grounds or where saw mills were historically located many years back etc. I suspect there are lots of reasons for mud with organic waste, some of them natural.

I have eaten a few that have that look and the meat seems normal but we are dialed in on crab and catch enough of the clean looking ones that we don't need to.
 
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I have a question on this subject. Caught a red rock crab yesterday. The shell was kinda dark like it was ready for a new shell. The lungs were super brown and black. Was this thing living in an oil spill, diseased, or Just a very old crab about to die?
We used to crab out of Tsawassen, grandparents had a house on the beach by the ferry terminal. Every so often we would get one with black gills, we always attributed it to the coal port. Maybe a similar cause here, thoughts?
 
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