Green Crab Sightings

European Green Crab Captured on Whidbey Island

September 19, 2017

Crab Team volunteers at Lagoon Point, on the west side of Whidbey Island, captured a single European green crab in their final sampling effort for this year. The male crab, at 47 mm across the carapace, is most likely a 2017 crab, part of this year’s cohort. A team of four volunteers from the island has been monitoring the site, April through September, for the past two years, but this is the first evidence of European green crab ...

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European Green Crab Found in Sequim Bay

August 23, 2017

A single European green crab was captured in Sequim Bay last week by Neil Harrington, an Environmental Biologist with the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe. Since the discovery of a small population of green crab in nearby Dungeness Bay this April, Harrington has been steadily trapping his way around Sequim Bay on the lookout for more of the invaders. Intensive trapping by Harrington and coworkers over the last week did not capture any additional European green crab, suggesting that ...

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Evidence of Predation on European Green Crab from Padilla Bay

August 14, 2017

It looks as though Crab Team, now a network of 52 early detection sites monitored by more than 200 volunteers and several dozen staff from partner agencies, might have another ally out in the mud. Last week, during regular monthly sampling in a channel at the south end of Padilla Bay, Lindsey Parker found a European green crab. This was definitely notable, because we would rather not find any green crab, but not entirely surprising because the monitoring ...

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Widening the Search for European Green Crab in the Strait of Juan de Fuca

July 20, 2017

Trapping to remove invasive European green crab from Dungeness Spit National Wildlife Refuge is in its 15th week since the initial discovery of four individuals during April of this year. As of last Friday, partners with US Fish and Wildlife Service (UWFWS) and Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW) had captured and removed 89 crabs from Dungeness Bay. Since our last update a few weeks ago, a few notable developments have ...

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Update on European Green Crab at Dungeness Spit

Header image: Allen Pleus (WDFW)

June 22, 2017

Four European green crab were captured at Dungeness Spit in early April – the third location in inland Washington where green crab have been found. Since the initial discovery 10 weeks ago, staff and volunteers from US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife personnel (WDFW) have been conducting intensive trapping and removal efforts in this newly-uncovered population. To date, 76 live green crab have been removed from the ...

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Invasive Green Crab Found at Dungeness Spit

(Photo: European Green Crab found at Dungeness Spit, Sequim, April 2017. Photo by Allen Pleus, Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife)    

April 26, 2017

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sequim, WA — A new population of invasive European green crab has been found at Dungeness Spit, near Sequim, Washington, rekindling concern over the potential for damage to local marine life and shorelines.

Staff and volunteers from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), which manages Dungeness Spit National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), captured a total of 13 ...

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Crab Team Takes Willapa Bay by Storm: Part 3

November 15, 2016

This series of three posts was originally written in August, but was pre-empted by the news of European green crab captures on San Juan Island and in Padilla Bay. Better late than never, here are our field notes on green crab trapping in Willapa Bay during August of this year. Read part 1 and part 2

Day 4: August 17 – wrapping up

Because we were camping literally right next to the marsh we were trapping, we got to sleep in ...

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Crab Team Takes Willapa Bay by Storm: Part 2

November 8, 2016

This series of three posts was originally written in August, but was pre-empted by the news of European green crab captures on San Juan Island and in Padilla Bay. Better late than never, here are our field notes on green crab trapping in Willapa Bay during August of this year. Read part 1.

Day 2: August 15

Up at 5 am to catch first light at 6. Back to Oysterville to pick up the traps – no green crabs, but a ...

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Crab Team Takes Willapa Bay by Storm!

November 3, 2016 

This series of three posts was originally written in August, but was pre-empted by the news of European green crab captures on San Juan Island and in Padilla Bay. Better late than never, here are our field notes on green crab trapping in Willapa Bay during August of this year. Of course, reading back on it after spending September in the mud, our previous eagerness to get in the field now seems…charming.

We staff members of the Crab Team couldn’t take ...

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Volunteer Voices: The Discovery of a European Green Crab on San Juan Island

October 18, 2016

You’ve heard a lot from us about sightings of the European green crabs that have occurred over the past two months. But we thought you would enjoy hearing about the experience of the first discovery from the Crab Team volunteers who made it. Craig Staude captains the group of 4 Crab Team volunteers who sample monthly at Westcott Bay. He wrote an article on the experience Sylvia Yamada, Oregon State University researcher and green crab expert, for

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Padilla Bay Rapid Assessment: Wrap Up

Header image by Allen Pleus (WDFW)

September 29, 2016

The joint effort by WSG Crab Team, Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW), and Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (PBNERR) to assess the abundance and distribution of invasive European green crabs in Padilla Bay wrapped up yesterday (read about day 1 and day 2). We checked and removed all 186 traps from 31 sites.

One green crab was captured on the second day of trapping, a 58 mm male, at ...

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Padilla Bay Rapid Response: Day 2

September 27, 2016

Another stunningly beautiful day to explore Padilla Bay (read about day 1). Day two of our rapid response trapping effort is complete; our teams checked all 192 traps at 31 sites, released native critters and refreshed the bait for an additional day of trapping.

Unfortunately, two additional invasive European green crabs were captured by our traps over the last 24 hours – both young of the year females. One was found about three quarters of a mile north of ...

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New Sighting of European Green Crab in Padilla Bay

September 23, 2016

Hot on the heels of the recent capture of the first confirmed European green crab along Washington’s inland shorelines by Crab Team volunteers, a second individual live invasive crab was caught in Padilla Bay, near Mt. Vernon, earlier this week.

The individual crab is a 34 mm female, and the small size suggests she is a young of the year, possibly arriving as a larva last winter. The crab was found by staff of the Padilla Bay National ...

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First sighting of European green crab in inland Washington confirmed

September 2, 2016

Crab Team volunteers discovered the first confirmed sighting of a European green crab along inland Washington shorelines while conducting their regular monthly monitoring earlier this week.

Volunteers at Westcott Bay, on San Juan Island, discovered the large adult male in one of their Fukui traps (the larger of the two types we use). Because the crab was an adult, it is believed that it washed in to the area as a larva in 2015 or 2014, possibly ...

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