Gloucester crabber nets a rare all-blue blue crab

GLOUCESTER

Talk about a blue crab ...

A Virginia crabber has netted one that was all blue.

On a recent crabbing run up the James River near Craney Island, a crab plopped out of a pot that caught Sally Epps' eye. It was shell-to-claw blue, as if it had been turned upside down and dipped in paint.

Epps had never come across an all-blue blue crab in 11 years of crabbing. The typical Atlantic blue crab has blue claws, and the female has distinctive swatches of red at the claw tips.

Epps handed the crab over to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. The crab soon died but was frozen for research purposes.