Aquatic Invertebrates - invasive

European Green Crab (Carcinus maenas) on Aug 18, 2019

Submitter does not have a specimen

Description of specimen

We set the pot just downstream of the end of the pilings in about 24 feet of water. Tide has just changed over from low to incoming tide. We let our pot sit for about 45 minutes and picked it up when we were heading back to the boat landing at the port of Florence. There were about 30 small Dungeness crab in the trap and 1 unidentified crab. We (me, wife, daughter and son) discussed the crab and thought maybe it was a kelp crab but didn't have resources to check it out. We took numerous pictures and then looked it up when we got back home and saw it was a European green crab

Commentary

Hello and thank you for your report! Your ID is correct, this is a European green crab (excellent photos, by the way). They are known to be present in the Siuslaw estuary and several other spots along the coast. There's a group out of OSU that has been doing some yearly monitoring, if you're interested you can find a report from 2017 at https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/technical_reports/rx913w156.

While there isn't any active management of this species in Oregon that I know of, people are interested in knowing where they are and if they're spreading or how the population is fluctuating. Your report will become another data point in our shared dataset for Oregon.

Many thanks,
Lindsey

Lindsey Wise
Nov. 21, 2019, 7:54 a.m.

In addition, you can see the Oregon distribution at https://imapinvasives.natureserve.org/ - click on Filter Records and type 'Green crab' into the Species box then Apply Filter.

-Lindsey

Lindsey Wise
Nov. 21, 2019, 7:58 a.m.

Location

We were crabbing on the Siuslaw River west of Florence. We set most of our pots down by the jetties but dropped on by the row of pilings across from the Greentrees housing community, . We set the pot just downstream of the end of the pilings in about 24 feet of water. Tide has just changed over from low to incoming tide.

Expert Reviewer

Mrs. Lindsey Wise
Oregon Biodiversity Information Center, inr.oregonstate.edu/orbic
Oregon iMapInvasives
Institute for Natural Resources
Portland State University

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