Seed production and farming of blue swimmercrab Portunus pelagicus

P. pelagicus is one of the major marine crab species landed in India. Though it is distributed throughout Indian coast, bulk of the landing is from Palk Bay and the Gulf of Mannar region, along the south-eastern coast. Crabs are mainly caught in bottom trawl nets, operated in deeper waters upto 50 metres and in some indigenous gears like modified gill nets which are used exclusively to catch crabs (locally known as Aedi bale, Nandu valai and Peethu valai), and mostly restricted to shallow grounds upto 15 metres. In other countries, several types of fishing gears are used to catch Blue Swimmer Crabs and among them crab pots being more common.