Migratory Behavior of Ovigerous Blue Crabs Callinectes sapidus: Evidence for Selective Tidal-Stream Transport

In the late summer and early fall, newly inseminated female blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus) leave low-salinity areas of estuaries and migrate seaward to spawn near the entrance. We tested the hypothesis that migration of female C. sapidus to spawning grounds is facilitated by selective tidal-stream transport (STST). We monitored the swimming direction of adult crabs from a stationary platform located about 1 km inside the entrance to the Newport River Estuary (Beaufort, North Carolina). Swimming activity near the surface occurred primarily at night and most crabs avoided swimming against tidal currents. Eighty-one percent of the crabs observed moving down-estuary toward the inlet during ebb tide were ovigerous females. Of the 36 gravid females captured traveling in ebb currents, 97% possessed dark egg masses containing late-stage embryos. Conversely, nearly all (98%) adult crabs observed traveling in flood currents lacked egg masses, and all the females captured while migrating up-estuary exhibited signs of recent spawning. These observations indicate that ovigerous blue crabs use ebb-tide transport to migrate seaward to spawn and flood-tide transport to reenter the estuary shortly after larval release.