By Pepper Fisher

There’s growing concern about the proliferation of European green crabs along Washington’s Pacific coast.

The destructive invasive species is spreading in several coastal locations including Grays Harbor and Willapa Bay.

First detected in Washington’s inland waters in 2016, extensive, widespread monitoring projects were launched, including here in Clallam County.

Green crabs thrive in shallow water and soft sediment, a common feature in Washington’s estuaries. They are known to be voracious eaters that use their claws to crush up anything that might be edible, often dramatically changing underwater landscapes and destroying eelgrass beds and other critical habitat for native species.

In our area, State Fish and Wildlife biologists have worked closely with Tribal and other teams since 2017 after a number of the crabs were found at the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge.

Environmental Biologist Neil Harrington with the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe says that while widespread prospect trapping in our waters have not yielded a huge number of green crabs, continued vigilance is needed.

“The effort that the Wildlife Refuge has done out on the spit has been really important. That was extremely concerning in 2017, and they kind of tracked them down out there. They’ve caught three so far this year. Definitely concerning, the area up by Drayton Harbor and Lummi Bay. They found quite a number last year, which is really concerning to me because it’s inside the Strait. And then the continued situation out at Makah Bay as well. The Makah Tribe has continued to find green crab at quite large numbers out there.”

(University of Washington photo)