There are tiny crabs in my oysters! Is this normal?

[Ziv]

I just had some of the best seafood I have enjoyed in years, but in two cases I ran into tiny pea crabs in some of my oysters, first time both in steamed and raw oysters and the second time, one was in the raw oysters. I ate the steamed pea crabs and they were pretty good, didn't have the courage to eat the still living, writhing ones in the raw oysters. The oysters themselves seemed pretty good and both the waiter and the people next to me said it was normal, so I wolfed down little steamed crabs the size of peas. Tasty but odd.
Back to my original question, though. Is this normal? The people I talked to said that the crabs were like wrasse fish, they cleaned the gills of the oysters and made them even cleaner. Were they making a virtue out of necessity, i.e. their oysters have pea crabs so they try to make it sound like it is not only normal but a good thing. So are they symbionts or parasites? And does it matter?
Some of you probably know where I ran into these little fellas, but I want to post it here on this board where people don't have their regional pride wrapped up in the issue.

[Jeanne]

This is perfectly normal - and considered a delicacy here. We often have steamed oysters at my sister and brother-in-law's house on the Pamlico River in North Carolina. BIL steams them and we all shuck them. In fact we had some a month ago and many of the oysters had the little crabs - they're yummy, to us a sign of a good oyster (these were delicious - from NC) and jokingly say that they are good luck. Enjoy!

(I don't eat raw oysters - don't like them and wouldn't eat the crabs raw).

[salsailsa]

I have had this in Costa Rica- we were snorkeling and our guide picked oysters off the ocean floor. He opened them up and there were the little critters- literally transparent. He picked one up and ate it. He said they're a delicacy. So, I said alright, picked up one and ate it live. I was like eating a fishy tasting bug (although I have never eaten bugs).

[Ziv]

I did that with shark 'sushi' on a fishing trip. Raw shark is not very tasty. Having its legs whipping around as I bite into it would have made it worse.

[cgarner]

This is so interesting to me, because I eat a fair amount of oysters, but I've never experienced this... I can't tell if anyone has answered the question of whether it's specific to the area the oysters were farmed or not?
anyone?

[Ziv]

I am still hoping the areas of pea crabs existence, both now and in the past, will come up.

[sunshine842]

not really symbiosis there...just peaceful coexistence. Certainly not parasitical, and completely normal.

[Veggo]

Peaceful coexistence? If oysters had legs and claws as crabs do, they would evict the scofflaws!

[sunshine842]

but if they sit still long enough, they might become a pearl. :)

Just meaning that the crabs don't hurt the oysters, and the oysters don't hurt the crabs.

[Ziv]

I was digging the symbiotic idea, I am ok with peaceful co-existence, but I hope the little devils aren't freeloading to the detriment of their hosts' health! ;-)

[sunshine842]

not really -- they might be snagging some of the oysters' food, but obviously if both are alive and well, it's not to the detriment of the oyster.

[John E.]

Actually, the pea crabs are parasites, I looked it up.

[sunshine842]

I read the same article -- they might be snagging some of the oyster's food, but they're not eating the oyster itself.

[John E.]

Would you eat the tiny little crabs? I'm intrigued but don't know how I would react if confronted with one of the critters.

[sunshine842]

I've only ever picked them out.

[Bacardi1]

Oyster (aka "Pea") Crabs are considered a delicacy, & it's completely normal to find them in oysters. The reason they choose oysters as hosts is for protection, since the crabs are naturally soft-shelled. In addition, there's absolutely nothing "disgusting" about them. They eat the same filtered food that oysters eat. Nothing else. They're not scavengers like other members of the crab family. Their only drawback is that since they eat the same food their host oyster eats is that they are, in essence, stealing food from the oyster, & some folks feel it makes the host oyster less plump.

But as far as eating goes - the crabs are perfectly safe to eat, raw or cooked.

[mudcat]

I second Bacardi 1. Eastern shore natives that I met and became friends with during my years in the area relished the pea crabs in the oysters. After eating my first dozen or so I became addicted.

[Ziv]

Mudcat, how often do you see pea crabs? I never shucked my own oysters and I hadn't seen one til I went to a locals seafood place in the Outer Banks. And I have had oysters there at Awful Arthurs, Dirty Dicks and Tortugas Lie and I never was served an oyster with a pea crab in it before. And I think Tortugas Lie is a pretty darned good seafood joint, the other two are not places I would go back to, but they weren't horrible.
Are shuckers starting to show tourists pea crabs now, whereas they used to hide them by disposing of them (or keeping them for themselves) 5 or 10 years ago?
Thanks for helping me out with this! I am really curious about this sort of food thing.

[mudcat]

Often when eating raw oysters in the Norfolk, Va. area. 1959 to 1961 and 1972 to 1975. I have never seen them in Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Georgia, Pacific Northwest, Hong Kong, Australia, Italy, Greece, France or Florida oysters. My mother's people were Croatian oystermen in Louisiana from 1909 through the '40s, oysters featured prominently in our diet. Friends accuse me of being born with an oyster knife in my hand. I have never suffered any ill effects from eating raw oyster anywhere. I do have Gout however as did all my uncles and aunts on both sides of the family, just part of our heritage. I take my medicine and am careful of the raw oysters I eat, always accompanied by plenty of cold beer.

[Ziv]

Interesting. So it seems like the majority, at least, of the pea crabs are in the Norfolk/Albeamarle/Outer Banks area. But if they are in the Norfolk area of the Chesapeake, why don't they come further north more often? Because they do show up in the northern Chesapeake, just not as often as they seem to show up in the Outer Banks. Or maybe the 3 or 4 I saw in a dozen oysters was just a coincidence.

[Ziv]

Bacardi, thanks for the response, but I have to admit that I don't want to eat one with his little legs churning away as I crunch into him! Steamed were fine.

[Bacardi1]

I fully agree with you there. I couldn't eat them alive either. But since I seriously dislike raw oysters & only eat them cooked, I won't have to make that call - lol!!

[quazi]

I've only seen them once, about 5 or six years ago in a bushel of oysters I got in the Southport/Wilmington area. I was shucking my own and it was quite a surprise to find these little creatures in my oyster. I could not locate any information on them at the time, so it is good to know they are safe to eat.

[chefathome]

This topic intrigues me. We live on the landlocked prairies where the sea culture is non existent. I did not even realize this occured! Learned something new again today.

[Hue]

I've experienced those tiny crabs many times, I generally avoid eating them however!!

[Ziv]

Hue, at the risk of getting this thread mod'ed out of this branch, would you say where you saw them? And how often you would see one in, say 3 dozen oysters? Is it even less frequent than that is most of the Chesapeake Bay?
I think it is a regional thing, and even though I was less than 300 miles from DC, I saw pea crabs whereas I have never seen them in oysters on the Bay. I will fess up and admit that this is about the Outer Banks/Albemarle Sound area, but I hope the moderators will leave the thread here with Chesapeake Bay oyster fans so I can find out if this is normal just in the Outer Banks or if it happens up here too and the shuckers just get rid of them without my noticing it.
But Reiflame's article makes me wonder if it happens up here too.
It didn't affect the flavor, size or appearance of the oysters in any way that I could recognize, and they tasted kind of good steamed, but I couldn't bring myself to eat them live, even though I was eating raw, live oysters at the time.

[mpjmph]

I grew up in the Albemarle sound area, and remember always having tiny crabs in oysters as a kid. We always ate oysters at home, so no intervention from a restaurant. There was always a bit of goading to eat the crab, especially when shucking raw oysters with live crabs! In later years, most of our oysters came from Texas, and did not have crabs,

[Ziv]

mpjmph, thanks for your response, it was exactly what I was looking for. When I first saw the steamed pea crab, I was a bit put off, but the guy at the bar next to me looked at me like I was a bit slow and said something to the effect that 'our oysters are the best in the world and some of them have pea crabs' but I wasn't sure if it was true or if he was helping to put one over on the 'foreigner'. The steamed pea crab was kind of sweet and rich, not sure what to call it.
I have had oysters from New York to New Jersey to Delaware to Maryland to Virginia plus Florida, Alabama and Louisiana, and I had never seen a pea crab. I think they must pop up occasionally elsewhere, but the shuckers dispose of them since people are less used to seeing them.

[Hue]

Ziv, I'm a Baltimoron born and bred, and I have seen this with mostly Chincoteague oysters shucked at home. I assume most raw bars would remove any "pea crabs".

[Ziv]

After I thought about it, Hue, I kind of figured the shuckers I see (who are usually shucking Chesapeake Bay, Apalachicola or Blue Point oysters) were just kind of flipping the pea crabs to the garbage and I didn't notice it. But it is kind of amusing. I have been eating raw oysters for 30 years and never noticed one of these little guys, but then again, I never shucked my own oysters.

[MRS]

vomit!!!

[reiflame]

So evidently in 1913, oyster crabs were a delicacy:

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-...

[harryharry]

That is fascinating! Love the article and now I know something new! Thanks

[Pappy]

Great! article. Thanks.

[mdfoodlover]

I don't know if those little critters are good or bad for you, but I personally would not want to be eating them raw in a freshly shucked oyster. I know the stuff that big crabs eat is rather disgusting, regardless of how delicious the end result is.

I feel you made a good choice in not eating the writhing ones.

[drewpbalzac]

if you dont like to think about what crabs eat - how can you even look at an oyster?

I knwo some guys who were chicken necking once and had a couple of dozen crabs, when the cops came and started dredging for a body near where they were crabing.

The ate the crabs anyway . . . .circle of life.