Where are all the Crabs?

Thargor

Bit of a strange question but does anyone know if theres been a collapse in crab populations? I do a lot of coast walking in Clare, Galway and Wicklow and just dont see them anymore, dead or alive. Maybe its rose tinted nostalgia but the rock pools everywhere seem a bit dead to me compared to when we were kids aswell.

Likewise we catch a lot of mackerel in places like Blackhead in Clare and other spots and clean them in the water afterwards and I remember as kids by the time you'd finished cleaning there would be crabs swarming the heads and guts, now theres nothing, when I was growing up it seemed any clear patch of water around a pier or natural shore you'd always see them, from little hermits to bigger specimens the size of your hand, cant actually remeber the last time I saw one now...

danbrosnan

They still there but maybe not in huge numbers, majority of trawler men focus on shell fish to make a living now!

BrownTrout

Knock a limpet off a rock with a stone, drop in a rock pool and watch the feckers come running! I have great memories of crab lines and limpets fishing in rock pools.

BrownTrout

Knock a limpet off a rock with a stone, drop in a rock pool and watch the feckers come running! I have great memories of crab lines and limpets fishing in rock pools.

derekc1010

was catching loads of wee ones 2 weeks ago in newcastle beach,they kept stripping the bait on every cast.