Northern Kelp Crab
Pugettia producta · Crustacean
A spider crab of the Pacific coast of North America, from southern Alaska to northern Mexico, with a smooth shell shaped like a police badge, about 9 cm across, olive-brown above and red, yellow or orange beneath, and long legs made for climbing bull kelp and pilings. It eats kelp and other seaweed in summer and turns to small mussels and barnacles in winter, sometimes hooking bits of kelp to its shell to eat later; sea otters, gulls and sculpins eat it. Nobody fishes it: it is hard to catch and carries little meat, but it pinches hard.
- Danger
- Dangerous if cornered
- How it is met
- Alone, day and night
- Size
- Tiny
- In winter
- Active in winter
Where it lives
Sources
Open it in Biomes — MGS Toolbox