Graceful rock crabs are mid-sized crabs, only growing to about 4 ½ inches wide. They are easy to mistake for a juvenile Dungeness crab.
Graceful crabs never grow as large as Dungeness crabs (which grow up to 10 inches wide.)
An easy way to identify a graceful crab is to look for a thin white outline on the teeth of the carapace. Only the graceful crabs have that white line.
Graceful crabs have purple legs and claws, but the claws have white tips. A similar looking crab is the Red Rock crab. But, it is larger, more red in color, and has black tips on its claws.
This crab can pinch if handled, but do not deliver quite the pinch of the red rock crab.
Pacific Wonder Tracker 