Yellow Crab
Cancer anthonyi (aka Matacarcinus anthoyi)

Physical Description

• Oval-shaped, broad, hard shell.
• Yellow, orange, or yellowish-brown body, with large black-tipped pincers on the claws.
• Large, smooth claws like rock crabs. But unlike rock crabs, no red spotting on underbelly.
• Juveniles tend to be darker than adults.

Range

• Humboldt Bay, California to Bahia Magdalena, Baja California.
• Rare north of Point Conception.

 Habitat

• Found from intertidal depths to 430 feet, but prefer 60-180 feet.
• Mainly live in sandy habitat.
• Live in bays, estuaries, sloughs.

Reproduction

• Rock crab females mate soon after molting when their shells are still soft.
• Females hold eggs on pleopods (back flap under abdomen) where they are fertilized.
• Eggs can be fertilized up to a year after mating; female holds onto spermatophore from mating.
• Female holds and protects eggs on her abdomen for a period of weeks before hatching.

Diet

• Echinoderms (sea stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers), snails, and clams.

Predators

• Juveniles eaten by octopus and sand stars.
• Adult rock crabs eaten by southern sea otters, scorpionfish, cabezon, barred sand bass, and several species of rockfish.

Interesting Facts

• They are also called Yellow Rock Crab.
• Yellow crab is the most commonly fished crab in southern California. They comprise 70-95% of the crab fishery in southern California.
• Rock crabs can molt up to 12 times.

Sources: pierfishing.com; Encyclopedia of Life; iNaturalist; California Sea Grant; Species Profiles: Life Histories and Environmental Requirements of Coastal Fishes and Invertebrates (Pacific Southwest); Ocean Protection Council

Photo: David R. Andrew