![]() ![]() Says Shields, “This blue crab is most likely an extremely rare genetic mutation that has altered the amount of certain pigments in the shell, the crab’s ability to bind to proteins in the shell, or the number of pigment-producing cells in the skin beneath the shell.” But McInteer’s "true-blue" blue crab appears to be a color variant and not an infection. Shields has also seen a rare orange coloration that is caused by a virus. He has seen this several times in crabs from Chesapeake Bay. VIMS Professor Jeff Shields, an expert in crustacean physiology and disease, says that purple coloration can be caused by a parasite that affects the muscles and shell. Female blue crabs have red tips on their claws. Lipcius says it's rare to find blue crabs that are completely blue - the last one reported to VIMS was in 2009 -but he notes "they have been found previously, as have albino and purple crabs.” In a typical blue crab, only the legs are blue the shell is beige. “The blue color is most likely a genetic abnormality,” says Lipcius, “like in the bilateral gynandromorph.” The latter reference is to a rare crab shared with the Lipcius lab in 2005 - this one split right down the middle, with its right half female and its left half male. Although the crab - a male - has now died, marine scientist Gabby Saluta says researchers will keep the specimen frozen for possible study in the future. Recognizing its rarity, they donated it to the laboratory of Professor Rom Lipcius, an expert in crustacean ecology at William & Mary's Virginia Institute of Marine Science. McInteer, who at 73 has been crabbing commercially for 10 years and recreationally for decades, says he’s caught blue crabs “with blotches of white, and some other slight discolorations, but never a solid-blue blue crab.” “Alan yelled, ‘Come look at this crab!’ He very carefully took him out of the pot and then I could see exactly what it was - I’d read about how they occur every now and then, so we knew what we had.” “We were excited about it,” says McInteer. Jim McInteer and his crew mate Alan Payne knew they had captured an oddity the moment they pulled their crab pot from the York River last Tuesday. ![]()
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