First Records of Blue Crab Callinectes Sapidus (Rathbun 1869) on the North-Western Black Sea Shelf

Abstract

Recently, there have been regular reports and notes of blue crab C. sapidus (Rathbun, 1896) findings in different regions of the Black Sea and Azov Sea. There is an assumption that this species will be common for the Black Sea benthic fauna. There are already more than fifteen previously published reported records of the blue crab from the Black Sea and Azov Sea. In 2019 three individuals of blue crab (one male and two female) were captured by Khizhnyak dredge and bottom beam trawls in the north-western part of the Black Sea (Ukrainian part). This is the first record for the C. sapidus from this region. Key words: blue crab, Callinectes sapidus, north-western part of the Black Sea.buzkomu-limani-vilovili-piv-nichno-amerikanskogokraba-foto.html) and the Sea of Azov (Fig. 1).Here, we report the first findings of C. sapidus on the north-western Black Sea shelf. One male C. sapidus individual was collected in mid-August 2019 in the coastal area of Zhebriyanska Bay at 8.0-10.0 m depth. A female individual of this species was detected within rapa whelk (R. venosa) catches in Zhebriyanska Bay at 8.0 m depth on the 24 th of October 2019. One more female individual was caught at Odesa Bank at 6.5-7.0 m depth on the 8 th of October 2019 (refer to Fig. 1 for precise collection locations and to Fig. 2 for images of individuals collected). All three individuals were found alive in the Khizhnyak dredge (Zhebriyanska Bay) and bottom beam trawls (Odesskaya Banka) used for rapa whelk harvesting.These first-time findings of C. sapidus on the north-western Black Sea shelf are in line with earlier assumptions on the hydrological characteristics of this area: relatively low salinity (compared to the Mediterranean) and winter temperatures; an appropriate environment for C. sapidus proliferation (Zaitsev 1998;Monin 1984;Pashkov, Reshetnikov, and Bondarev 2011). An increased number of C. sapidus findings in the Black Sea region during the last decade (see dates at Fig.