Do hatchery-reared blue crabs differ from wild crabs, and does it matter?

Successful use of hatchery-reared juveniles to enhance recruitment-limited populations or severely depleted stocks is contingent upon their ability to survive and grow upon release into the wild. Hatchery conditions often result in juveniles that exhibit morphological, physiological, or behavioral characteristics different from their wild counterparts. Managers of stock enhancement or restocking programs need to assess whether any such deficiencies translate into differences in performance between hatchery-reared and wild juveniles in the field. If so, the deficits may be minimized through conditioning strategies. In this review, we summarize various aspects of the morphology and behavior of cultured and wild blue crabs, Callinectes sapidus, and compare our work on these crabs to studies on other invertebrates. We identify similarities and differences between cultured blue crabs and wild conspecifics. In some cases where differences existed, conditioning of the hatchery-reared crabs before release rapidly mitigated the defects, and, overall, any remaining differences did not translate into decreased survival. We conclude that there are no significant impediments to the fitness of hatchery-reared blue crabs used in release programs.