The blue crab is the Gulf's working crab: the one in traps, on menus, and in the shallows of every bayside flat. Texas Parks and Wildlife's species account gives the essentials . A mature crab's shell runs about seven inches across and four inches front to back, with a long spine at each side, and a big one weighs a pound or two; NOAA allows up to nine inches across the carapace . The back is dark or brownish green; the underside is white.
Telling the sexes apart is easy once you turn one over. The male's abdominal flap, the "apron," is narrow and shaped like an inverted T; the female's is broad and rounded . Claw tips are a second check: mature females wear red on the claw tips, males show blue . A female carrying an orange-to-brown spongy mass under her apron is a "sponge" crab brooding eggs. TPWD puts a clutch at up to two million eggs incubated about two weeks ; Florida's wildlife agency describes the mass darkening from orange to brown over one to two weeks and reaching as many as eight million eggs .
Texas' commercial blue-crab harvest was 6.9–11.7 million pounds a year in the 1977–1989 period cited by TPWD . Current recreational rules, as published in the TPWD Outdoor Annual for the license year 1 September 2026–31 August 2027 and checked 2026-09-02 : minimum size 5 inches measured spine tip to spine tip; no daily or possession limit; up to 5 percent by number of undersized crabs may be held for bait only, in a separate container; egg-bearing (sponge) crabs may not be possessed, nor may females whose apron has been removed; legal devices include crab lines, traps, nets, folding panel traps, umbrella nets and sand pumps. Non-commercial crabbers may fish at most six traps, each no larger than 18 cubic feet, with two escape vents of at least 2⅜ inches, a white float at least six inches on a side, and a gear tag . Crab traps may not be placed or left in coastal waters from 19 to 28 February 2027 . That closure is the annual abandoned-trap removal created by Senate Bill 1410 of 2001 (77th Legislature): ten days beginning the third Friday of February, with volunteers first working in 2002 . The 2026 window ran 20 February–1 March; volunteers pulled 973 derelict traps, bringing the program total past 46,000 traps and an estimated 756,461 blue crabs saved from ghost-fishing . Anyone taking crabs needs a fishing license with a saltwater endorsement unless exempt .
Observe responsibly
Wildlife, tides and access conditions change. Keep a respectful distance, do not feed wildlife, stay out of dunes and marked nesting areas, and use current official rules before fishing or handling any catch.