CRABS' 85 MILES' WALK.

Mataura Ensign, 27 January 1912, Page 4

CRABS' 85 MILES' WALK.

Tli.it edible crabs aro a Tiotne-loving conunuiiity was brought to tho notice oE tbe Eastern Sua. Fisheries Committee at its half-yearly meeting at King's Lynn. A year ago some 2000 crabs were labelled and returned to the water along tho East Coast, and rewards were offered to tho fishermen for the Return of the marked crustaceans, over 400 of which have since been sent in with details as to the whereabouts of recap-' true. The investigations show that crabs keep to their own locality and that if taken a. distance away it >s the.'r instinct to return to their birthplace and feeding-ground. A number of crabs brought from Yorkshire and liberated off the Lincolnshire coast as ?ar south as Skegness walked homo to Yorkshire. again, and in doing so they had to travel distances ranging from 45 to 85 miles and had to cross t!.o Humbert Not .no of tho Yorkshire crabs has teen retaken south of its place f* liberation, and of t.'ioso that did not return to their old haunts nearly every one was recaptured at a spot which sho.ved that they had travelled a considerable cistanc© towards 'home. Two Tabs, a male and female, originally taken in the same trap off the Yorkshire coast, wore returned to the sea at different points off the Lincolnshire coast. Nine month* later both were retaken, again in thn same trap, and on the ground from which they were at first taken.