February 26, 2025

Crab Team Origins & 10 Years of Accomplishments

From humble beginnings spent daydreaming in 2014, from the first trap in the water in 2015, to a network of 307 active monitors across 68 sites: in 2024, Crab Team celebrated a decade of trudging around in the mud and counting crabs! A total of 770 monitors and 37,000 hours have been engaged in these efforts since Day One (August 14, 2015). The timing of the program proved to be critical, both for the state and for the monitors that joined us in the early adventures. From the first confirmed detection along Washington’s Salish Sea shorelines in 2016, to 2024, a year that broke green crab catch records. This massive, coordinated effort of dedicated volunteers, tribal partners, and agency collaborators is also responsible for one of the most comprehensive datasets recording biodiversity in Washington’s pocket estuaries.

Crabstock 2024

What better way to “take stock” of a decade of decapods than a party, and what 10th birthday party is complete without cake?! On October 6th, 2024, Crab Team monitors and staff gathered at UW’s Seattle campus to celebrate 10 years of community-powered monitoring of the European green crab invasion. We call these events Crabstock, and they never fail to deliver on crabs, music, and of course mud. Together, we reflected on all the mud walked, the traps set, the crabs counted that make Crab Team’s extensive monitoring network possible. We celebrated lessons learned about the green crab invasion and goals reached in monitoring important ecosystems. (If you would like to hear Crab Team HQ’s 10 year reflections, we saved a recording of the retrospective welcome presentation.)

The celebration featured Crab Team reflections, a green crab dissection, and time for connection with monitors from across the years. In addition to tie-dying limited-edition Crabstock t-shirts and clawing up Crab Team birthday cake, monitors brought together their wealth of Crab Team experiences to ponder the meaning and impact of these efforts in Washington’s pocket estuaries. By the end of the day, a collaborative wall-sized timeline overflowed with pictures and perspectives from Crab Team monitors, a showcase of all the places and people it takes to carry out such an ambitious ecological invasion monitoring effort (see below). Be on the lookout for this timeline at refresher trainings to add your own photos and stories!

It’s no exaggeration to say that Crab Team monitors were at the leading edge of building awareness and support for the green crab issue in the state. Reflecting on not only what has changed in the mud since 2015, we are also proud of the community of crabbers that monitors have founded. Many monitors are change-makers in their community, serving on Marine Resources Committees, and stewardship groups, teaching in the classroom, inviting their families into the field, and carrying the work they do sampling their site into other parts of their lives. The reach of monitor efforts extends well beyond the 68 sites in the network thanks to the talent and passion of the folks who are the heart and soul of the program.

Crab Confessional

A subset of brave monitors also shared stories and confessions about their experiences with Crab Team…

What are your favorite Crab Team memories?

• “I love the variety of critters at Lake Hancock and the camaraderie of being out in nature (in the mud 🙂) with good friends who care about the environment.”
• “My favorite Crab Team memory is that I’ve gotten stuck [in the mud] more often than anyone I know, but get to see gunnels up close.

What have you learned from being a member of the Crab Team?

• “I have learned a lot about crabs and have a greater appreciation for them. My friends are always impressed with my identification skills!”
• “I’ve learned a lot about communication and teamwork.”
• “How fun it is to work as a team, even in muddy conditions.”

How would you describe Crab Team to someone who has never heard of it?

• “A citizen scientific adventure to find the dreaded European green crab, with lots of counting and recording.”
• “It’s a super fun way to spend a couple days in a week, but definitely be prepared for mud. Waders are your best friend.”
• “The coolest people I know teaming up to defend our shores from the pinchy menace.”

In contrast to the clear consensus that everyone’s “favorite” part of Crab Team is trudging through the mud, we uncovered deep divides in perception of green crabs themselves, which are exemplified by the following honest confessions written with evident conviction [emphasis original]:

“I THINK GREEN CRABS ARE CUTE…”

“I AM TERRIFIED OF CRABS!”

Regardless of where monitors fall in this debate, Crab Team looks forward to the many years of monitoring to come!

 

Header photo: Crabstock attendees, including monitors, and their friends and family, assembled to raise a claw or a peace sign at the UW Fisheries building in October 2024. Photo: Elyse Kelsey