The Blue Crab's Diet

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Although widely thought to prefer dead animals, Blue Crabs actually prefer to eat fresh or live food.

At night, blue crabs swim around lighted piers preying on bait fishes and smaller blue crabs.

Crabs will also lie motionless on the bottom waiting for unsuspecting prey.

Clam, oyster and mussel shell beds are typical feeding areas for blue crabs.

Some have estimated that adult blue crabs will eat more than 1,200 juvenile clams a day.

Blue crabs also eat vegetation such as salt marsh cordgrass, eel grass, sea lettuce and many other plants.