Mud crabs, regardless of where they come from, have one thing in common.

Advertise with News of The Area today.
It’s worth it for your business.
Message us.
Phone us – (02) 4981 8882.
Email us – media@newsofthearea.com.au

They are all cranky!

I don’t know why muddies have developed such an antisocial attitude.

If you are in the presence of a mud crab, be aware of the mighty claws that will immediately be stretched wide apart and then clatter closed, if you go too close.

There isn’t great joy in being a muddy – being so angry all the time must be difficult.

I suppose when you consider it, they have very little reason not to be cranky.

There really isn’t a great deal for a mud crab to do from sunrise to sunset.

Spending all day, every day, in the soft mud searching for scraps of food or digging deep down building an underground tunnel to call home, all the time avoiding the crab traps set throughout the system by commercial and recreational fishers who are planning to introduce the crab to the cooking pot!

Their daily diet is far from exciting, consisting of worms, oysters, mussels and decaying vegetation.

Looking more closely you will find that mud crabs are far more interesting than you first thought.

Ranging from Shark Bay in Western Australia across the Northern Territory, down into Queensland and as far south in NSW as the Bega River – If you can find a mangrove tree you will probably find a mud crab.

Rarely will you find a female mud in the estuary crab carrying eggs.

The reason is that part of their breeding cycle is completed way out at sea.

Hard to believe that Port Stephens mud crabs swim out through the heads and have been found in underwater caves some 80 metres underwater.

In some parts of the world female muddies have been reported as travelling 50 kilometres offshore sinking to a depth of 300 metres.

By John ‘Stinker’ CLARKE