Tuesday, November 1, 7 p.m., Emmanuel Episcopal Parish Hall
— from Joe Gaydos —
Inhabiting eel grass beds and various other seafloor habitats from the Aleutian Islands to Santa Cruz, California, Dungeness crab are a popular delicacy and are the most commercially important crab in the Salish Sea. In the Puget Sound alone over 10 million pounds of crab are caught annually and 20% of that is by recreational fishers during the short July-August season.
You love to catch and eat them, but did you know that female crabs can only mate immediately after shedding their shell and may only mate once in their lifetime? Did you know that Dungeness crabs spend their first four months of life floating about as planktonic larvae but don’t move very much after that? Come learn about the crabs you love to eat and the health and status of this important fishery.
Rich Childers is the Puget Sound Shellfish Manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. He will share his knowledge about the fishery and the life cycle of the Dungeness crab whose Latin name Cancer magister means the “master crab.”
The talk is free and takes place at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, November 1 at Emmanuel Episcopal Church’s Parish Hall in Eastsound. Please note that in an effort to avoid Election Day, this lecture is on the first Tuesday of the month, not the second Tuesday of the month when we usually host them.
The 2016-17 Marine Science Lecture Series is designed to inspire the general public and to highlight the amazing fish and wildlife of our region. Lectures are free.
The Lecture Series is presented by program partners The SeaDoc Society and YMCA Camp Orkila. It has been made possible through generous sponsorship by The Averna Family and (Deer Harbor Charters), Barbara Bentley and Glenn Prestwich, Barbara Brown, Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Audrey and Dean Stupke, West Sound Marina, Inc. and Martha Wyckoff in honor of Lee Rolfe. For more information visit https://www.seadocsociety.org/events
