On Sep 15, 8:45*am, "JoeSpareBedroom"
wrote:
"DerbyDad03" wrote in message

...





This has been bothering me for a few weeks.

We went to Ocean City, MD last month and spent a day crabbing with
chicken legs and string. We caught enough crabs in a few hours to feed
the 6 of us.

I mistakenly assumed that since the crabs live in the water I should
transport them back to our condo in water, so I put enough water in
the cooler to cover them. They were all pretty feisty during the few
hours we were catching them and tossing them in the cooler.

However, a couple of hours later when we got back to the condo, 90% of
them were dead.

I later learned that they should be transported on ice with a roughly
50 degree temp being the best.

The thing I don't get is why did they die in the cooler in just a
couple of hours? In all the time we were crabbing I never saw one crab
"come up for air" so I assume that they can breath in water.

Did they simply use up all of the oxygen in the cooler water and
basically drown?

Your last question: Yes. They need moving, fresh water, which is why live
wells on boats have pumps & aerators. I used to go crabbing with my
grandfather, and if we didn't have ice handy, he'd put the crabs in the
cooler between layers of wet towels, or even newspaper, which he always
seemed to have on his boat.

Your nose is the best judge of whether conditions in the cooler are still
healthy. It doesn't take long for unhealthy seafood to smell "off".- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Thanks.

"Your nose is the best judge of whether conditions in the cooler
are still healthy."

When we got back to the condo I was concerned about eating the dead
crabs. I had heard that you should never eat dead crabs because the
bacteria begin to grow very soon after they die. I was almost resigned
to telling the family that we weren't having crab for dinner when I
came across a website from the University of Texas that basically said
that if you *know* when they died and if it's only been a couple of
hours, then you're safe.

Apparently all the other info was related to *buying* dead crab, like
off a truck or something, where you don't know when they died.

We ate our fill and no one got sick.