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The Wrack

The Wrack is the Wells Reserve blog, our collective logbook on the web.

Posts tagged green crabs

  • Researchers Test Modern Technique for Finding Green Crabs

    | February 12, 2021 | Filed under: News

    Study published in Ecological Indicators demonstrates the potential for using environmental DNA to survey green crabs in estuaries.

  • Green Crab 2019 Update

    | August 21, 2019 | Filed under: Program Activities

    When green crabs arrived in New England more than 150 years ago, they found an unoccupied ecological niche in Maines salt marshes. Despite their long occupancy, great abundance, and serious impacts, there is a lot left to learn about green crabs. The reserves latest research has focused on understanding seasonal movements, population structure, sexual maturity, and effects on habitats.

  • Green Crabs are Likely to Remain in Maine Even as Waters Change

    Blair Morrison
    | August 10, 2017 | Filed under: Observations

    Green crabs appear to have the potential to maintain their populations and continue spreading as an invasive species, even as southern Maine's coastal waters become warmer and more acidic.

  • Green Crabs Damaging Maine Salt Marshes

    | April 20, 2016 | Filed under: News

    Green crab burrowing activity is weakening salt marsh creek banks, causing them to erode.

  • 2015 Green Crab Trapping Update

    Wells Reserve Contributor | November 6, 2015

    We've processed all the catch from another season of trapping green crabs (Carcinus maenas) and have some preliminary results to report.

    Between June and October we caught 6,432 green crabs. This is merely half the number of crabs as last year! In the figure below you can see that the catch was not distributed equally across the three trapping sites. Trends in numbers were similar to those seen last year. Again, the most crabs were caught in the Webhannet River, Wells (3,848) and the least in Broad Cove, Yarmouth (284).

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  • Being a Research Intern at the Wells Reserve

    Madhu Cornelius
    | August 3, 2015 | Filed under: Program Activities

    I'm interested in the relationship between human communities and their environments. That is, how human activities have impacted watershed environments, coastal ecologies, and others and how environmental changes such as climate change and sea level rise are affecting human communities especially in coastal regions.

  • Green Crab Project Update

    Wells Reserve Contributor | January 14, 2015

    Back in September we reported on a current research project going on at the reserve? green crab sampling! We now have an update on this project, but first to refresh your memory&

    Over the 2014 field season, research staff and interns participated in a green crab abundance study in hopes of getting a better understanding of population dynamics of this invasive species on marshes along the coast of Maine. We used modified eels traps baited with Atlantic herring, deployed two traps at a time per site, left them for 24 hours, and repeated this process eight times between June and October.

  • How to Catch 5,000 Green Crabs

    Wells Reserve Contributor | September 11, 2014

    Measuring a green crabThe invasive European green crab is not only a popular topic in the media these days; here at the reserve green crabs are receiving their?fair share of attention as well? 5,878 of them so far to be exact!

    The Wells Reserve has teamed up with the University of Maine, Casco Bay Estuary Partnership, and Southern Maine Health Care to study the impacts of the invasive European green crab (Carcinus maenas) on the geology and stability of our marshes. Over the summer we have been collecting abundance data that will later be used in conjunction with fyke net data, water quality data, and even geological techniques to better understand the effects green crabs are having on salt marshes throughout southern Maine.

  • Impacts of green crab predation on soft-shell clams

    | June 4, 2014 | Filed under: Observations

    The reserve works with Dr. Brian Beal, one of the leading scientists looking at the impacts of green crabs on soft-shell clam populations.

  • In Like a Lionfish, Part 2

    | March 15, 2014 | Filed under: Opinion

    Once invasive species get into an ecosystem, it's nearly impossible to get them out.