Bella the Blue Crab is a wonderful story of a brave little she-crab who helps save the Chesapeake Bay. Bella is a positive role model who enjoys helping her fellow sea creatures with acts of kindness and bravery. Bella's story comes alive through the beautifully animated pictures of the Chesapeake Bay and coastal towns along the Eastern Shore.

Two blue crabs feed together, mate, and see their offspring grow up to continue the life cycle.

Chadwick, a Chesapeake Bay crab, yearns for adventure and finds it in a most dangerous form, prompting the birds and marine animals who share the Bay to come to his rescue on the mainland.

The blue crab (Callinectes sapidus Rathbun) of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts supports the largest crab fishery in the United States. Chesapeake Bay on the Atlantic coast and the estuarine waters of Louisiana on the Gulf coast now furnish 75 percent of the catch. Fluctuations in the abundance of blue crabs have occurred over the past half century in Chesapeake Bay where year-round fisheries have long been established. This report examines the nature and causes of fhese fluctuations. Several natural factors which appear to regulate the annual survival rate and the abundance of the blue crab are discussed on the basis of available knowledge.

Combines a natural history of the Atlantic blue crab with an historical and ecological study of Chesapeake Bay and a chronicle of the commercial crabber's year