Species Code: CAMA1 Tips of its back legs are pointed, slightly flattened and hairy 5. • Walking legs are dark green, speckled with black, but color with shell color. The Green crab (Carcinus maenas) is known by different names around the world. • Bright blue claws, olive green shell While green crab cannot crack the shell of a mature oyster, they can prey upon young oysters, and will dig down six inche… Native Range: Europe to North Africa. NJ Status: Widespread and highly threatening to native communities. • First stage larvae remain offshore until development into the megalopal stage in approximately two weeks. By the 1980s, the crab had reached San Francisco Bay and started to spread along the west coast, and in 1996, the crab inhabited over 500 km in California. Colour variable: green, red or yellow 6. Shell serrated and trapeze-shaped, with three spines between the eyes and five on each side 3. • Tolerant of water temperatures ranging from 32°F to 86°F and a wide range of salinity, which allows it to survive in estuaries. Scientific name: Carcinus maenas What Is It? 1. It typically is found in high intertidal areas and marshes in coastal estuaries and wave-protected embayments. Aggressive, territorial and vigorous, can survive out of the water for several days It has recently been discovered that there are actually two different types of green crabs found in eastern Canada. European green crab. The European green crab is a concern to Alaska because it may have negative impacts on local commercial, personal use and subsistence fisheries and cause habitat disturbance. The European green crab (Carcinus maenas) is a small shore crab whose native distribution is in the northeast Atlantic Ocean and Baltic Sea, ranging along coasts from northern Africa toNorway and Iceland. The European green crab is a small shore crab that is not necessarily green like its name implies. In the British Isles, it is generally referred to simply as the Shore crab. Common Name: European green crab, shore crab, Joe rocker. The crab is an effective predator, adept at opening bivalve shells, and has been blamed for harming the soft shell clam industry on the U.S. East Coast. Adult size: up to 10 cm 2. It can live on a variety of surfaces including sand, mudflats, shells, cobble, algae, and rock. This marine predator was thought to have been introduced to the U.S. Atlantic coast in 1817. The crab had spread to the north all the way along the coast of Maine and up into Nova Scotia by the mid-1900s. • 5 pointed spines behind each eye; 3 rounded lobes between the eyes. Green crab pose a threat to Washington's native shellfish, which are important for recreational and commercial harvest as well as to the shellfish aquaculture industry, and native estuary ecosystems. • See factsheet for more information, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, http://wiki.bugwood.org/index.php?title=Carcinus_maenas/NJ&oldid=53413, Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health at the University of Georgia, This page was last modified 20:28, 19 September 2014 by. • Can colonize all types of protected and semi-protected marine and estuarine habitats, including habitats with mud, sand, or rock, submerged aquatic vegetation, or emergent marsh, but prefers soft sediment. Common Name: European green crab, shore crab, Joe rocker In North America and South Africa, it bears the name Green crab or European green crab. • Voracious predator. Native Range: Europe to North Africa Family Name: Portunidae - Swimming crab family. During the megalopal stage the larvae move to near shore waters and molt into juvenile crabs in the intertidal zone. • Sexually mature and will mate after 2 - 3 years, usually between July and October. • Claws are similar in color to shell with black spots along the palm. Although the European green crab has successfully spread to various locatio… • Carapace (shell) has a fine granular or bumpy texture, 2 - 3” long and 3.5” wide. • Light and dark bands along legs • Adult crabs migrate to deeper waters in the winter, and females extrude eggs in the spring in open sea. Family Name: Portunidae - Swimming crab family The color on the ventral side (back) of the carapace may change from green to orange to red. Feeds on mollusks, worms, and small crustaceans. Two claws of different sizes 4. The fourth pair of walking legs is shorter than the first and are flattened and covered with bristles (setae). In areas where green crab have been able to establish reproducing populations, they have had dramatic impacts on other species, particularly smaller shore crab, clams, and small oysters. • Females produce up to 185,000 eggs. • 9 teeth on each side of the shell, • Hairy, white tipped claws • See factsheet for more information, • Square-shaped shell with 3 spines on each side • Second and third pairs of walking legs are the longest with a length about one and two thirds times the length of the carapace. • Color ranges from green to brown with yellow splotches on the dorsal side (belly) of the carapace. NJ Status: Widespread and highly threatening to native communities. Species Code: CAMA1.