They have been washing ashore on the west facing beach along the Punta Banda "Spit". That pretty much kills the fishing in the bay since the fish have
all gorged themselves on these.
sancho - 5-18-2015 at 03:15 PM
Reports offshore for a while is that the rad crabs have been around for a while,
some Yeowfin Tuna caught 70 mi. so.
off San Diego a couple days
ago, the El Nino prediction is said to be strong, hopefully a lot
of rain in Ca.woody with a view - 5-18-2015 at 03:57 PM
this is the 3rd event with the red crabs in my lifetime. glad to see them again!El Jefe - 5-18-2015 at 04:12 PM
Years ago we were camped out on the beach near San Quentin. A friend of mine had driven down in his wife's Trooper. Thought he would test it out in a
high speed run down the flat hardpacked sand. He came back to camp grinning about what great fun it was to run over all the dead red crabs that
covered the beach.
A day after he got home the Trooper started to smell funny. Soon the odor got really bad. No more grin. Wife decidedly unhappy, "no more boys' trips
for you!"4Cata - 5-19-2015 at 12:16 AM
Are they good for bait? they make quite the impression. Never seen them, are they aggresssive, bite?DavidT - 5-19-2015 at 02:55 AM
All the fish we caught while fishing iron 2 winters ago at Asuncion were stuffed with these guys. Yet there was no sign of them on the surface.
That's a lot of protein on that beach. bill erhardt - 5-19-2015 at 05:29 AM
Pelagic red crabs are candy for just about anything else swimming. Here are some on the Ridge outside Mag Bay that a school of squid found:
[Edited on 5-19-2015 by bill erhardt]
[Edited on 5-19-2015 by bill erhardt]dtbushpilot - 5-19-2015 at 06:16 AM
Can you boil them up like crawfish?DENNIS - 5-19-2015 at 06:21 AM
Doesn't seem to hurt the fishing around Punta Banda. Yesterday, Ivan Villarino told me his customers caught a mess of big Yellowtail.Pompano - 5-19-2015 at 06:38 AM
Here's another account of those red crab massings in Baja.
These are photo 'captures' I took from an old video camera I used to film a massive beaching of red crabs in Coyote Bay in the spring of 1987. It was
utterly wild! There were literally millions and millions of the little red crabs in the waters and piled high on the shorelines.
I did a lot of reading and research about these creatures back then. They are commonly known in English as Pelagic Red Crab, Tuna Crab, or Lobster
Krill.
Some local Baja names are… Langostilla, Langostino chileno
Pelagic Red Crab, (Pleuroncodes planipes, family Galathidae, if you’re writing a thesis): These Pelagic Red Crabs are a very unique species that
serves as a vital food source for a wide variety of marine life including the Humboldt squid, turtles, whales, and all sorts of fish.
The Pelagic Red Crab is found in the open ocean and on occasion is washed ashore during the spring months.
In Mexican waters, this creature is found predominately along the lower west coast of the Pacific side of the Baja California peninsula and in our Sea
of Cortez south of the Midriff Islands, and ranges to about 125 miles south of Cabo San Lucas.
This crab species is believed to spend the majority of the year hiding in and around sandy bottoms. However, during the spring it travels in enormous
dense schools, up to 10 individuals per square foot, that have been estimated to consist of up to 200 billion individual members weighing a total of
300,000 tons.
These schools attract a vast number of diverse predators. The Pelagic Red Crab is approximately 4 inches in length, with the shell measuring just over
1 inch. It swims backwards by flipping it tail and streamlining its legs. The Pelagic Red Crab feeds on planktonic bits of food.
The Pelagic Red Crab is utilized by the panga flotilla of commercial fishermen to catch red snappers, the prized Huachinango, out of deep holes by the
bucket load; the snappers are only interested in live specimens and will not touch dead ones, making same day collection and maintenance a key for the
successful use of this crab as a bait. The Pelagic Red Crab is also used to catch the Pacific Creolefish in large numbers on or near the surface on
some occasions.
The pelagic red crab, also called "tuna crab.". These crabs sometimes form solid floating masses on the ocean surface and they are a preferred forage
when available. In 1970, Ray Cannon wrote a column in Western Outdoor News about a huachinango surface frenzy stimulated by red crabs off San Jose del
Cabo.
Sometimes they die and wash ashore by the millions, forming windrows hundreds of yards long, like the ones I videoed here in Coyote Bay. At the time
of my filming, all the beaches and shorelines from Conception Bay to south of Loreto were windrowed with the dead and dying mass. Truly one of
Nature’s impressive events.
Below are some clear 35mm photos and also ‘captures’ of the video images.. but those came out a little fuzzy.
When the masses were out in open water you could look down and see solid red, and also see huge red snapper trashing in and out of the schools.
Once the crabs were dead and washed up on the shore…surprisingly absolutely nothing would touch them. Not a gull, buzzard, Norwegian, or cow would eat
them. They just accumulated by the jillions. Oddly, I did not notice any smell, although they were around for a couple days. Even my black lab,
Gypsy, took a whiff and said No thanks. Little Brian from next door thought he’d try one, but he had second thoughts after sucking on one. Hey, I
tried to stop him, but in reality it’s best he learns on his own!
The red windrows went all the way around the Bay. Lots of campers had to shovel a path through the crabs to reach the water. What a story they must
have told back home!
A few days later…and a few high tides…and it was clean and smooth as usual. Gypsy and Brian went beach-combing again to check things out…eating
things as they found them.
Never a dull day in Paradise.
baja43 - 5-19-2015 at 07:02 AM
Great post! As always, informative AND entertaining. I've been a salt water fisherman for 65 years and I consistently learn something from your
missives. Wish I had a few more profs like you during my younger years.
Muchas graciasBajaboy - 5-19-2015 at 07:47 AM
A friend emailed me some videos of something similar the other day from dog park at Fiesta Island here in San Diego.woody with a view - 5-19-2015 at 10:13 AM
my thoughts eggsackly!!!DENNIS - 5-19-2015 at 10:49 AM
Just get word to the Chinese community in your neighborhood about this. They'll have the beaches cleaned in no time at all. They eat anything.Pompano - 5-19-2015 at 11:21 AM
Dennis..even pelicans won't eat them from the beach.
And...did you know that eating the live red crabs gives salmon their red meat color?
read it here.....http://spo.nmfs.noaa.gov/mfr3610/mfr36101.pdf4Cata - 5-19-2015 at 12:42 PM
So, no one answered DT's question--has anyone boiled them up like lobster and eaten them? Just askin'. Thanks for response, and thanks for great
pix.redhilltown - 5-20-2015 at 12:11 AM
A few weeks ago all the fish we caught at Puerto Santo Tomas (just south of Ensenada) were coughing them up once landed. Tomas Tierra - 5-21-2015 at 07:21 PM
I have batter fried tlive ones in the past.. They don't taste like much.. Not bad dipped in c-cktail sauce, but generally meh..
The Korean restaraunt that Cooke them for me loved it.... Shocking
TTPompano - 5-22-2015 at 09:49 AM
Unless you're a tuna, don't waste your time trying to eat one of the live pelagic crabs..let alone a dead one from the beach. Hardly any meat and
it's not anything like a nice fresh crawfish where you just flavor-boil it a bit, twist off and suck the head, then peel and dip the tail in your
favorite sauce...which is damn yummy. My chums and I have done just that with many a crawdad on fishing trips since we were old enough to roll over
rocks in the streams.
But as for these red crabs we're seeing and hearing about..as Crocodile Dundee said about the goanna, grubs, and beetles he's roasting..."Well,
you can live on it, but it tastes like _ _ _ _!"
Crawdads
AKgringo - 5-22-2015 at 12:15 PM
This is a bit of a highjack, but the best crawdads I ever ate came from Tahoe, and Donner Lake in the Sierras.
They are larger, and sweeter than the mudbugs from lower elevation!
Crawdads
Pompano - 5-22-2015 at 02:03 PM
Sources tell me that nothing could compare to a Louisiana crab boil.
Obviously, BajaNomad needs to host a crawdaddy cook-off! No pelagic reds need apply.Skipjack Joe - 5-22-2015 at 03:28 PM
A few weeks ago all the fish we caught at Puerto Santo Tomas (just south of Ensenada) were coughing them up once landed.
Sounds like even they didn't like them. shari - 5-22-2015 at 03:46 PM
folks round here chucka whack of em in oil and deep fried em for snackin on...yummy!
Last time we had them here, there were blue whales in Asuncion bay gorging on them! Big baleen whales love them.woody with a view - 5-22-2015 at 04:44 PM
Sources tell me that nothing could compare to a Louisiana crab boil.
Obviously, BajaNomad needs to host a crawdaddy cook-off! No pelagic reds need apply.
I was about to apologize for passing on old crawdad info (mid 70s), but then I remembered whose thread I was responding to. Oh well....I am pleased
when I can remember pleasant parts of my past.
I don't know if the pier we used to drop our traps from is still in existance!Bajahowodd - 5-24-2015 at 04:58 PM
Just get word to the Chinese community in your neighborhood about this. They'll have the beaches cleaned in no time at all. They eat anything.
Not exactly PC, my friend.
Way to go Dennis. PC is the old censorship in action. I'll have none of it.basautter - 5-24-2015 at 08:49 PM
Very cool! I have not had the experience yet.bajaric - 6-12-2015 at 09:59 AM
The news in San Diego this morning is reporting that the red crab are washing up on Ocean beach. Took them a month to drift up here from Ensenada.
My take on it is that if the ocean waters support the lower levels of the food chain (plankton, pelagic crabs, clam eggs) that is a good thing.
