Refrigerating Live Blue Crabs: What You Should Know

After a long day of crabbing, the refrigerator may seem like the perfect place to store your live crabs. That’s exactly what I thought my first time crabbing, and I ended up with a mostly-dead half-bushel of crabs. In this article, I want to share my mistakes and how you can avoid them.

I want you to realize that storing live crabs, in general, is such a delicate process with so many ways to go south. Storing crabs in the refrigerator may keep them cool for a little bit, but not very long. This begs the question: How long will blue crabs stay alive in the fridge?

Blue crabs will stay alive for 1-2 days in a refrigerator. Keeping crabs in a refrigerator will slow their metabolism, keeping them alive longer than being outside of the refrigerator. However, after 1-2 days in the fridge, crabs will die because of the lack of moisture in their gills.

For any west-coast crabbers reading, it’s the same with storing live Dungeness crabs in the refrigerator.

Refrigeration may not be the best way to keep live crabs, but years of crabbing has taught me a few tricks to keep crabs alive for longer, which I’ll share in this post. I asked some fellow crabbers and found a few ways to keep crabs alive for longer in the refrigerator. So be sure to stick around!

Properly Storing Live Crabs in a Refrigerator

Your refrigerator will keep live crabs kicking for a lot longer than they would be sitting out in the open, the only issue is that it’s not for very long. Refrigerators do just as great of a job killing a crab, then as they do keeping it alive. The three big killers are lack of oxygen, refrigerator fans, and cold temperatures.

In this section, I’ll talk a little about each and how to account for it.

Lack of Oxygen

Like most creatures, lack of oxygen will kill live crabs. If you place a bushel of crustaceans in your refrigerator, it won’t take long for little guys to use up all of the air inside.

If you’re going to store crabs in a refrigerator, make sure it’s a frequently-opened one. Some crabbers on a forum were joking that crabs they store in their beer fridge never seem to go bad.

Every few hours or so you’re going to have to open the fridge door for at least 30 seconds to make sure your crabs have some airflow. This is very important for keeping crabs alive in a fridge.

Refrigerator Fans

Another crab-killer in your fridge is the refrigerator fans. Nothing would last long in a constant gust of chilly wind, let alone a poor blue crab! A crab sitting in front of a refrigerator fan is like throwing someone in the middle of a blizzard with no coat.

A genius way to account for that is by covering your crabs with damp newspaper. This will block the wind and keep the crab’s gills moist. Layer two or three wet sheets over your crabs. If you still have access to the water you caught your crabs in, they’ll do much better. Just bear in mind that your refrigerator is going to smell like crabs from now on.

It’s similar to how crabbers cover their bushel baskets with damp newspapers. Doing so accomplishes the same thing. It keeps crabs cool and their gills moist. Any crab in that environment will last a very long time.
Cold Temperatures

Even if you cover your crabs with newspaper and make sure they have air, this last factor will definitely kill your crabs. So, pay attention.

As I mentioned before, your fridge is not a great place for live crabs. The temperatures are usually set to 35-40 degrees Fahrenheit, which is just too cold. Dungeness crabs may fare a little better, but blue crabs won’t last very long.

If your refrigerator has an adjustable temperature setting, you’re in luck. Go set your refrigerators to a comfortable, chilly 45-55 degrees Fahrenheit. This is what commercial fishermen set their walk-in freezers to when storing crabs.

Around 50 degrees Fahrenheit is a perfect temperature because it’s cold enough to slow the crab’s metabolism. This chills the crab enough to put him in a dormant state.

Storing your crabs in anything colder will kill them. At the same time, storing them in anything significantly warmer is like sitting them on your driveway to bake in the hot sun.

Your best bet at keeping crabs alive is to store them at 45-55 degrees Fahrenheit while covered in damp newspaper. Make sure you check on them every so often to not only make sure they’re alive but to give your crabs a little fresh air.

How to NOT Keep Crabs Alive In Your Refrigerator

I told you before that keeping live crabs is a delicate process, especially when using a refrigerator.

1) NEVER store your crabs in standing water.

Crabs need oxygenated water to live and breathe. A crab sitting in a bucket full of water for too long will not last, because its gills will deplete the water of its usable oxygen.

The same is true when newbie crabbers try storing crabs in containers of water. The crabs will eventually suffocate due to lack of oxygen. I can’t stress this point enough.

2) NEVER store your crabs in a container with ice.

You should never do this for the same reason why you don’t store crabs in standing water. Storing live crabs in a close container with ice will just be a slower death than storing crabs in standing water. Even slower when this is in a refrigerator.

The ice will eventually melt, placing the crabs in standing water. This water will be quickly depleted of oxygen by your crabs and kill them.

3) NEVER store live crabs in direct sunlight.

This is more for people who are using a cooler than a refrigerator. In most cases, a refrigerator wouldn’t be outside, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Marylanders can be a little crazy (no offense to Marylanders, I’m a Maryland resident myself).

The sun beating down on a refrigerator and cooler full of crabs will most definitely kill them. Make sure the crabs are stored in a shady, cool area. A damp burlap towel will help cool the cooler or refrigerator if shade is an issue, but it’s not a complete fix.

If you can’t store live crabs properly, my recommendation is to cook the crabs right away. Crabmeat will last MUCH longer in a freezer than a live crab would in a refrigerator.

Predict How Long Your Crabs Will Last In The Fridge

You can take an educated guess on how long your crabs are going to last in the refrigerator by flipping them over. If you take a look at each crab’s abdomen, it can tell you a lot about the current state of the crab.

What you’re looking for is whether you have quality, hard crabs, or light crabs.

Lightweight crabs will not last as long out of the water (or in your refrigerator) as quality, hardy crabs. Fishermen call these types of crabs “Whiteys.” These crabs have just recently molted, which makes them very fragile with less meat on them. This is why I call them light weights.

Hardier crabs are the opposite. They have darker-toned bellies. If you flip your crabs over and they have this undertone on their bellies, your crabs may last longer than the predicted 2 day lifespan in your refrigerator. Just make sure you’re applying ll of the tactics I mentioned earlier.

For some images to help you tell the difference, check out Bluecrab.info’s page on “Fat Crab” vs. “Whitey”.

Better Methods For Keeping Crabs Alive

When I stored my crabs in a refrigerator, they didn’t last for more than a day. This was a beginner’s mistake. But who can blame me? Refrigerators are a killing machine for live crabs.

But hey, don’t get me wrong. It’s recommended by suppliers that you refrigerate live crabs after you buy them. Yet even they say that doing so will keep crabs alive for 6-8 hours (Source). In most cases, they will last a little longer than that.

The problem is that crabs have gills, which means they need to be kept in oxygenated water to stay alive. I wouldn’t recommend making a fish tank for your live crabs, that can get smelly…

There are better methods for keeping crabs alive out of water. I’ve found that they’ll actually last longer in a cooler filled with ice than they would in a refrigerator. All you need to do is line a cooler with ice, lay a damp towel or thick layer of damp newspaper over the ice, pull the plug in the cooler, and lay some damp burlap over the open cooler. Place the cooler in a shady spot with a nice breeze.

For more information about storing crabs this way, check out my article on Keeping Blue Crabs on Ice.

Another way to store live crabs is with a live-well. I’ve never done it before, but it’s an old method that’s worked great for people who live on the water.

It’s basically creating a chamber for the crabs you catch out on the water. Some crabbing boats have a built-in live-well. It’s a small box that’s either in a boat or floating in the water with holes drilled in the side. You put your crabs in the box and they live there until you’re ready to cook them. This is for when you’re stockpiling crabs for weeks at a time. If you decide to build a live-well, you’re going to have to feed your crabs daily.

I’ve never been interested in the idea. If I wanted a large catch I’d go crabbing the day before, or order live crabs from my local seafood supplier. But to each his own.

Conclusion

I hope I’ve answered your questions. Just to sum it up, blue crabs will last 1-2 days in the refrigerator. Make sure the crabs are covered with a damp newspaper in a regularly-opened refrigerator. Also, make sure the crabs are not in standing water.

If you do all of these things, your crabs may just beat the 2-day prediction. Be sure to cook your crabs before then! Good luck!