Crab fishery of the Egyptian waters with notes on the bionomics of Portunus pelagicus (L.)
Abstract
The marine shellfish production in Egypt from shrimps and crabs had been subjected to a sharp decline from about 20.8% of the total marine fish production (19.3% shrimps & 1.5% crabs) in the period 1962—1971 to 14.7% (10.1% shrimps & 4.6% crabs) from 1972 to 1983. The swimming red crab Portunus pelagicus (L) is considered to be dominant species in the catch collected from Abu-Kir and Maadia fishing centers.
The blue crab Callinectes sapidus (R.) appears only during the period from July-August each year. Another six small sized species were observed in the catch in very small amounts. By tracing, the increase of the carapace width distribution in the commercial catch for P. Pelagicus (L.) during one year, the average rate of growth was found to be 11.68 mm per month. It seems that the commercial catch of this species is dominated by one year class. Females of this species of all sizes are dominant all the year except in autumn when the males were abundant. The increase in weight of this species was found to be at a rate equal to or slightly less than the cube of its carapace width for both sexes.
