Chinese mitten crabs mating

The Chinese mitten crabs found around the Chesapeake and Delaware bays in recent months are mating, scientists confirmed, raising concerns the invasive crab could be making a home in the area। Scientists say 10 mitten crabs have been reported in the last three years, two of them females. Scientists have confirmed that those females showed evidence of mating, The (Baltimore) Sun reported Tuesday.Greg Ruiz, senior scientist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, told the newspaper that despite the evidence of mating in the two crabs, it's too son to know the threat posed to native blue crabs by the smaller Chinese invaders.

"It suggests they are certainly reproducing, mating and producing eggs, but we don't know if it's a self-sustaining population," Ruiz said.Scientists worry about the Chinese mitten crab because the critters dig burrows in tributaries and can clog water pipes and fight for food with native species. Chinese mitten crabs are brownish-green, with tufts of thick black hair near their claws that give them their name.Jonathan McKnight, associate wildlife director at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, said Chinese mitten crabs prefer saltier water for reproduction than is contained in the middle and upper Chesapeake. The crabs' eggs would likely have to be south of Cape Charles, Va., to have enough salt to survive, he said. No mitten crabs have yet been confirmed in the Virginia portion of the Chesapeake.