ECOLOGICAL DATA
Distribution: widespread and common
in semi-protected bays and estuaries along B.C. coast; also in protected rocky areas
associated with rocky headlands and outcrops.
Habitat: rock, gravel or kelp beds in bays or estuaries, or rocky areas where
rocky headlands or outcrops provide some wave protection; lack gill straining apparatus
required for living in muddy/sandy habitat; planktonic larvae dispersed by currents;
juveniles remain in intertidal and shallow subtidal associated with macroalgae until 2nd
summer; breeding occurs in inshore waters.
Tidal elevation: intertidal to 79 m subtidal depth.
Food: carnivore; barnacles, bivalves, smaller living crabs and dead fishes.
Predators: rockfish and other large fishes, octopus and marine mammals.
GROWTH RATE
Must molt to grow; maximum width is 158 mm.
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FISHERY Too small for commercial
harvest, but is taken in sport fishery.
REFERENCES
Hart, J.F.L. 1982. Crabs and their relatives of British
Columbia. B.C. Prov. Mus. Handb. 40: 206-207.
Knudsen, J.W. 1964. Observations of the reproductive cycles and ecology of the common
Brachyura and crablike Anomura of Puget Sound. Pac. Sci. 28: 3-33.
Kozloff, E.N. 1983. Seashore life of the northern Pacific coast. Douglas &
McIntyre, Vancouver: 370 p.
Morris, R.H., D.P. Abbott, and E.C. Haderlie. 1980. Intertidal invertebrates of
California. Stanford Press, Stanford, Calif.: 607-608.
Trask, T. 1970. A description of laboratory-reared larvae of Cancer productus
Randall (Decapoda, Brachyura) and a comparison to larvae of Cancer magister Dana.
Crustaceana 18: 133-146.
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