The Hudson-Raritan Estuary as a crossroads for distribution of blue (Callinectes sapidus), lady (Ovalipes ocellatus), and Atlantic rock (Cancer irroratus) crabs
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Date
2004
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Show full item recordAbstract
Blue (Callinectes sapidus)(Portunidae),lady (Ovalipes ocellatus)(Portunidae), and Atlantic rock (Cancer irroratus) (Cancridae) crabs inhabit estuaries on the northeast United States coast for parts or all of their life cycles. Their distributions overlap or cross during certain seasons. During a 1991–1994 monthly otter trawl survey in the Hudson-Raritan Estuary between New York and New Jersey, blue and lady crabs were collected in warmermonths and Atlantic rock crabs in colder months. Sex ratios, male:female, of mature crabs were 1:2.0 for blue crabs, 1:3.1 for lady crabs, and 21.4:1 for Atlantic rock crabs. Crabs, 1286 in total, were subsampled for dietary analysis, and the dominant prey taxa for all crabs, by volume of foregut contents, were mollusks and crustaceans. The proportion of amphipods and shrimp in diets decreased as crab size increased. Trophic niche breadth was widest forblue crabs, narrower for lady crabs, and narrowest for Atlantic rock crabs. Trophic overlap was lowest betweenlady crabs and Atlantic rock crabs, mainly because of frequent consumption of the dwarf surfclam (Mulinialateralis) by the former and the blue mussel (Mytilus edulis) by the latter. The result of cluster analysis showedthat size class and location of capture of predators in the estuary were more influential on diet than the speciesor sex of the predators.Journal
Fishery BulletinVolume
102Issue/Article Nr
4Page Range
693-710Resource/Dataset Location
http://fishbull.noaa.gov/1024/stehl.pdfCollections