Where do crabs go in the winter?
When the water temperature starts to fall and the days start getting shorter, the blue crab retreats to deep water and burrows into the muddy or sandy bottom to spend the winter. A crab buries itself by forcing its abdomen backwards into the bottom with quick snapping motions. While doing this, the crab will also pick and claw at the bottom with its hind walking legs and flip it away with the paddles of its swimming legs. Within a few minutes the crab is resting at a 45 angle in the bottom, with only antennae, the tips of its eye stalks, and small breathing channels visible in the mud.
