1-16-2023 4:30am

RARE ALBINO BLUE CRAB

This ghostly white crab got its own photo shoot before arriving to a new home at the Annapolis Maritime Museum. Photo: Jay Fleming

Rare “Albino” Blue Crab On Display At Maritime Museum After Adventurous Journey

By Bay Bulletin

Every once in awhile, a Chesapeake Bay waterman finds an unusual catch in his crab pot—a pure-blue crab, or a male/female crab like one we reported on last year.

This time, it was a fully- white, possibly albino crab. Instead of bluish-brownish shell color, this crab’s shell was snow white. It’s a notable catch that is now on permanent exhibit at the Annapolis Maritime Museum. But what’s even more notable is the journey this unusual crab took to get to its new home, thanks in large part to well-known Bay photographer (and Chesapeake Bay Magazine contributor) Jay Fleming.

The waterman who caught the ghostly crab is Mike Spiegel, who crabs out of Mill Creek on the Magothy River. A family in Cape St. Claire, Md. bought live crabs from Spiegel for their traditional Halloween crab feast, and Spiegel slipped the albino crab in the bottom of their basket.

“He kind of told them there was a surprise at the bottom. And they get to the bottom and they see this full white albino crab, and they decide they don’t want to cook and eat it,” Fleming tells us. “So they were trying to figure out what to do.

That’s when Fleming enters the story. As fans of his photography, the family reached out to Jay with a hunch he’d know what to do with the crab.

“They contacted me via Facebook and asked if I knew of somewhere that would take the crab and immediately I thought of the Annapolis Maritime Museum (AMM),” Fleming tells us.

Fleming, who often exhibits his photos at the museum, FINISH READING HERE