Transporting Crabs

[PAFireGuy]

Any thoughts on transporting crabs?
I did fairly well this weekend out of AH but lost too many on the 2hr ride home. They were in a cooler with ice, with a towel over the ice and the crabs on top of the towel. There was no water in the cooler.
I think they may have gotten to cold.

[Man Workin]

Sounds like you froze a few, no ice in cooler, hit them with some saltwater before you go and make sure you crack lid of cooler. Also grab a bushel basket instead of cooler from fish market or flee market and store them in that with a bad of ice on lid. We caught a bunch near LBI this last week end and a few died in a couple hours of this heat.

[courbeco]

Lots of fresh seaweed layered and on top, keep cool with little ice. Bushel basket, not cooler chest. They will hold for days.

[june181901]

Have always been told that you don't cook and eat dead crabs is because you don't know when they died. If they were on ice as yours were and were alive two hours previously I would throw them in the pot for cooking.

Am I taking too much of a chance?

[Man Workin]

If they died an hour or so before you are probably ok, but if you have been out and they been dead just toss them unfortunately. I don't know how to post pics but my brother Chris got a 8 inch point to point in M.D yesterday said it looked like a lobster.Only six others unfortunately.

[PeteyHD]

If they were alive and died on ice I would cook em.

Also bushel is the way to go. No ice but give the the bushel a dip in the salt before heading home. Keep em cool and make sure to put something to catch the access water or else you will have a drippy mess.

[ALS Mako]

I put crabs in a cooler with frozen water jugs. Keeps the crabs cool and no water for them to drown in.

[Gerry Zagorski]

The crabs may have actually been playing dead.... If there was no water in the cooler to drown them, the cold temps may have put them in hibernation mode.

As mentioned above, the best thing to do is to keep them in a bushel basket and dip them in the salt water before transporting.

[PAFireGuy]

Thanks for your help, we'll give the basket a shot to keep them alive.

[Sako1]

I've transported them fine by having a few inches of ice on the bottom of an igloo cooler then placing a towel folder over on top of the ice and then crabs on top

Dave