Roger Fuller (center) reads off a GPS coordinate to volunteer Mary Campbell (left) as Cori Gardner prepares to set the next crab trap Wednesday along the shores of Padilla Bay south of Bayview. The traps will help give an estimate of the population of the invasive European green crab along with other native species.

Roger Fuller holds a hairy shore crab Wednesday in Padilla Bay south of Bayview. The native species is visually similar to the European green crab, an invasive species first spotted in the state in the late 1990s.

Researchers stand on a salt marsh Wednesday while setting crab traps in Padilla Bay south of Bayview.

A crab trap sits along the shore of Padilla Bay during low tide Wednesday south of Bayview.

Roger Fuller (left) and Cori Gardner record the GPS coordinates of a crab trap after it was placed Wednesday south of Bayview.

Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve Environmental Technician Cori Gardner wears a hat with a depiction of a European green crab while setting a crab trap Wednesday south of Bayview.

A crab trap sits along the shore of Padilla Bay during low tide Wednesday south of Bayview.

Roger Fuller (center) reads off a GPS coordinate to volunteer Mary Campbell (left) as Cori Gardner prepares to set the next crab trap Wednesday along the shores of Padilla Bay south of Bayview. The traps will help give an estimate of the population of the invasive European green crab along with other native species.

Roger Fuller holds a hairy shore crab Wednesday in Padilla Bay south of Bayview. The native species is visually similar to the European green crab, an invasive species first spotted in the state in the late 1990s.

Researchers stand on a salt marsh Wednesday while setting crab traps in Padilla Bay south of Bayview.

A crab trap sits along the shore of Padilla Bay during low tide Wednesday south of Bayview.

Roger Fuller (left) and Cori Gardner record the GPS coordinates of a crab trap after it was placed Wednesday south of Bayview.

Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve Environmental Technician Cori Gardner wears a hat with a depiction of a European green crab while setting a crab trap Wednesday south of Bayview.

A crab trap sits along the shore of Padilla Bay during low tide Wednesday south of Bayview.

Cori Gardner of the Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve sets up and secures collapsible crab traps near the Padilla Bay shoreline.

Plastic containers of mackerel sit at the center of each trap. When the tide rolls in, the oils from the mackerel will travel through the water, attracting crabs.

A volunteer, Mary Campbell, holds a clipboard, writing down the coordinates of each trap. She said she doesn’t know much about crabs, but she does love mud.

Members of the research reserve and volunteers set traps Wednesday just off the Padilla Bay Shore Trail in an attempt to locate the invasive European green crab.

The green crabs threaten the state’s native eelgrass beds and shellfish populations, eating anything they can “get their pincers on,” said reserve Coastal Resource Specialist Roger Fuller.

Padilla Bay has the largest eelgrass bed on the West Coast. Its 8,000 acres of eelgrass serves as a vital habitat to juvenile salmon, native crab, herring, waterfowl and marine birds, according to the state Department of Ecology.

On Thursday morning, the group checked the traps and found no green crabs present, something Fuller was happy to see.

What it did find was an abundance of native species — hairy shore crabs, purple shore crabs, and Dungeness crabs.

The group will now move the traps to other areas of the bay to search for green crab hotspots, and perhaps will return to the Padilla Bay Shore Trail in late August to check again.

There is a process to looking for green crabs.

Once early detection trapping confirms the presence of green crabs in an area, the next step is assessment trapping to narrow down the locations of the crabs.

And once areas have been identified where green crabs have proliferated, they are intensively trapped to attempt to rid an area of the species.

“Early detection is super important,” Fuller said. “... There’s a couple of places where there’s a lot of crabs right now, and they’re places where we didn’t catch (them) early enough. … If we get them really fast then they don’t get out ahead.”

In September 2016, Washington Sea Grant’s Crab Team first confirmed the presence of green crabs in Padilla Bay after 15 years of early detection trapping efforts.

The crabs likely arrived as larvae, possibly from the established population in Sooke on Vancouver Island, according to Washington Sea Grant.

Fuller said he’s seen a growing awareness of green crabs within the community in the past year. When he’s out setting crab traps, passersby on the bay often ask him whether he’s trapping for green crabs.

“There’s a huge shoreline in the Salish Sea and we obviously cover just a small part of that shoreline, so having people aware of the problem when they’re walking the beach (helps us find new places where green crabs show up),” Fuller said.

Not all green-colored crabs are European green crabs though, Fuller said. Beachgoers can identify a European green crab by looking for five spines on each side of a crab.

Fuller asks that beachgoers report suspected sightings of green crab to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and not to kill crabs they think are green crabs.

The well-intentioned beachgoer can accidentally kill native species of crab in their efforts against the European green crab, he said.

— Reporter Benjamin Leung: bleung@skagitpublishing.com, 360-416-2156, Twitter: @goskagit

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