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Blue crabs are the most important part of a Whooping crane's winter diet at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. The cranes aren't the only ones who want crabs. Commercial fishermen put out traps and catch blue crabs and stone crabs along the Texas coast. They sell the crabs to restaurants and food processing companies. Each fisherman is allowed to have 200 crab traps. But some fishermen fail to pick up the traps. Other traps get washed ashore. Over many decades, abandoned commercial crab traps became litter scattered throughout Texas bays.

Photo: USFWS
Loading an abandoned crab trap during the annual clean up at Aransas NWR in Texas