(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
White to move and mate in two #693 - Beautiful Swimmers [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-07-17
Watermen, Crabs and the Chesapeake Bay
How often crabs hunt and kill each other is a matter of considerable debate. Throughout history, the world has viewed crabs as unpleasant and bellicose animals. “Crab” is synonymous with a nasty or complaining disposition in a great many languages. Both cancer and karkinos, the Latin and Greek forms respectively, have been borrowed to describe the world’s most deadly disease. Thus cancer and carcinogens, much to the annoyance of carcinologists who are forever receiving letters from medical libraries asking what stage of the disease they are investigating. From time to time Crustaceana, the International Journal of Crustacean Research, suggests a change to “crustaceologist,”but nothing has come of this.
Most crabbers believe the crab’s bad name is not fully warranted. Opinions vary, however. “Who knows?” asks “Chas” Howard of Crisfield’s Maryland Crabmeat Company.”Only thing I know is they can crawl, swim and bite like hell.”
“Oh, if they’re hungry enough, they fight,” Grant Corbin has told me. “Get too many crowded together and that’s bad, too. You remember the day we went out in June getting pots half full, with maybe ten to twenty crabs? Well, then you remember there weren’t neither dead one. More than that, though, and they start beating on each other.”
“Undoubtedly, crowding is a big factor, as in the crab floats,” says Gordon Wheatley, an experienced crab scraper who is also principal of Tangier Island’s combined grade and high school. “But sometimes crabs are just plain belligerent for no reason. Nothing within clawshot is safe.”
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/7/17/2329054/-White-to-move-and-mate-in-two-693-Beautiful-Swimmers?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
