Hollow Crabs

I picked up 2 large rock crabs, and 1 large dungy yesterday at tomales. One of the rock crabs only had about 10% meat in the legs and claws. I had seen that before with rock crabs that had a lot of parasites, however I was dismayed to find only 30% of the meat in the dungy. I did see a few parasites in the rock crab but didn't notice any in the dungy. Both crabs had full body meat.

I wonder if they are starving, sick,or had some parasite I didn't notice.

Usually when they are like that they have just melted and not yet filled into their new shells?

Hey Mark
A week ago I too had 1 Dungie and 2 reds  @ Tomalas
My dungie had  small meat in legs and claws and a whitish liquid in em.  I think he was old??
The reds were FULL of meat  and flavorful!
I don’t know but at least we didn’t skunk!!
We’ll get em next time!

Scotty

Apparently after the "spawn" or being in the clutch, the crab do not feed and they molt.  Any soft translucent shell is lacking meat for sure.  I'm thinking the Rock Crab have a similar process needing time to fill out, harden...not a marine biologist by any means but did a quick gathering of info...

Pulled a few softy reds as well, you can pinch their legs and if it's kinda squishy chuck them back. One of my dungies was a softy too just though it might be fine and for the first time my daughter decided she liked crabs and was chowing down till she came to the hollow crab.

Sucks for you Mark because that crab you got was the nicest one by far that any of us saw all day.

I got 7 dungies snaring at Tomales last week, and all but one were absolutely packed with meat. One was a little on the slim side, but nothing egregious. We did pick up and release a few rock crabs that felt pretty light for their size though.