Soft-Shell Crabs Created On Demand? | National Geographic

some US scientists believe they have
found a way that might make softshell
crabs available year-round a research
team at the University of Alabama at
Birmingham may be on the way to finding
a method to induce molting which leaves
the blue crab with a soft shell molting
in the spring and early summer allows
the crab to grow and before its new
exoskeleton has a chance to harden the
crab is more pliable for just a period
of hours and it’s in that short window
of time when the soft-shell crab the
newly molted crab is considered to be a
delicacy by lovers of seafood due to
habitat loss and pollution wild
populations of blue crabs have plummeted
over the last decade spelling disaster
for the crabs and those rely on cloudy
for a living Watson’s theory is that
crabs pulled from the wild population
could be induced to molt year round
he says his team has isolated the
hormone receptor that inhibits molting
and will soon test compounds designed to
block the receptor and induce molting in
vitro in the petri dish the receptor
blocker blocks the effect of Multan
hibbity hormone so what we want to do
now is test it in crabs and see if it
will induce molting and crabs
according to Monterey Bay Aquarium
Seafood Watch a sustainable farming
program would need to follow among other
things strict guidelines surrounding the
impact on the wild population
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