A new look at blue crab cannibalism in the Chesapeake Bay

By: WHRO

Outlets: Virginia Mercury

Published: March 20, 2026

Words: 741

Last Updated: 1 day, 2 hours ago

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By Katherine Hafner/WHRO

Each summer for nearly four decades, scientists at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center have tethered some baby blue crabs along a Chesapeake Bay tributary.

Then they watched, hoping to learn more about which marine creatures prey on crabs. Turns out, their biggest predators were their own kind.

Adult crabs accounted for about 97% of juvenile crab deaths at the study site in Maryland’s Rhode River, just east of Washington, D.C.

Scientists have …

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