TY - JOUR
AU - Bishop, James M.
AB -  and Blue crabs, Callinectes sapidus Rathbun (Decapoda: Portunidae), inhabit es- tuarine and near-shore waters of the Western Atlantic from Nova Scotia to Uru- guay and support a major fishery on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States (Van Engel, 1958). Equations expressing the relationships of total carapace width to live weight have been generated for blue crabs from Chesapeake Bay (Newcombe, Campbell, and Eckstine, 1949a) and from Texas (Pullen and Trent, 1970; Truesdale, 1970). Total width and weight data of crabs from the St. Johns River, Florida, were published but no relationships were calculated (Tagatz, 1965). In these studies, with crabs separated by sex, males weighed more than females for a given width. Sex, however, is not the only variable that affects crab weight. Growth ratios of blue crabs change with maturity (Newcombe, Sandoz, and Rog- ers-Talbert, 1949b), tissue mass during an instar may increase 24% (Haefner, 1964), and lateral spine length varies greatly (Williams, 1974). Thus, for a par- ticular sex and width, crabs can vary considerably in weight. The purpose of this paper is to present total width-weight relationships of blue crabs from South Carolina taking into consideration not only sex, but also maturity, 
TI - VARIATIONS IN TOTAL WIDTH-WEIGHT RELATIONSHIPS OF BLUE CRABS, CALLINECTES SAPIDUS, IN RELATION TO SEX, MATURITY, MOLT STAGE, AND CARAPACE FORM
JO - Journal of Crustacean Biology
DO - 10.1163/193724083X00238
DA - 1983-01-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/brill/variations-in-total-width-weight-relationships-of-blue-crabs-FuJbu6ppJp
SP - 575
EP - 581
VL - 3
IS - 4
DP - DeepDyve
ER -