Species
Blue Crab
Blue Crab carries consumption advisories on 39 waters across 5 states. Limits depend on the water and the fish's size — a bigger fish has had longer to accumulate contaminants, so it's usually the stricter one.
Contaminants found in blue crab: Arsenic, Hexavalent chromium, Dioxins, Mercury, PCBs
Advisories are per-water — there is no single answer
The strictest advisory on file for blue crab is Do not eat due to elevated PCB. Whether that applies to your fish depends entirely on where you caught it. Find your water below.
Where blue crab has advisories
Waters with blue crab advisories
- Anacostia River Maryland
- Back River Maryland
- Bohemia River Maryland
- Bush River Maryland
- Chester River Maryland
- Choptank River Maryland
- Eastern Bay: Miles & Wye Rivers Maryland
- Elk River Maryland
- Herring Bay Maryland
- Lower Chesapeake Bay and Tributaries Maryland
- Lower Patuxent River Maryland
- Magothy River Maryland
- Maryland's Atlantic Coastal Waters Maryland
- Mid Bay: Middle to Patapsco Rivers Maryland
- Mid Bay: Patapsco to Upper Patuxent and Tributaries Maryland
- Middle Patuxent River Maryland
- Middle River Maryland
- Nanticoke River Maryland
- Northeast River Maryland
- Patapsco River - Baltimore Harbor Maryland
- Pocomoke River Maryland
- Potomac River: Mouth to 301 Maryland
- Rhode & West Rivers Maryland
- Severn River Maryland
- South River Maryland
- St. Mary's River Maryland
- Upper Chesapeake Bay and Tributaries Maryland
- Upper Patuxent River Maryland
- Wicomico River Maryland
- Brunswick River-Cape Fear North Carolina
- Cape Fear River 2 North Carolina
- Sturgeon Creek North Carolina
- Houston Ship Channel Texas
- San Jacinto River Texas
- Upper Galveston Bay Texas
- King Creek Virginia
- Tabb Creek Virginia
- Tabbs Creek Virginia
- Lower Duwamish River Washington