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Evidence

Where all of this came from.

39 reference records rest on 224 published pages, and 109 of those come from state and provincial natural-resources departments. That suits a set of records about what lives in the water those departments survey. The rest is federal survey work, university and extension guides, and interagency reports. The counts are below. Every reviewed line sits behind a record or a search, with the sources standing behind its record.

Carrier reviewed
2026-09-25
Next review due
2026-12-24
Review cadence
90 days
Publication state
Approved — reviewed evidence, within its review cadence

How to read this

A line is cited as precisely as someone checked it.

Where a reviewer traced a line to the pages that carry it, the line names those pages and, when the evidence is narrower than the record, where it comes from — one coast, one lake, one region. 605 of 1049 of the lines below are traced that way. The rest show the sources standing behind their whole record, marked “record’s sources”, because nobody has yet checked which page carried which line, and printing a single citation there would be a mapping nobody made.

  • National

    52

    A federal or national government body — USGS, NOAA, EPA, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Park Service, Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

  • State

    109

    A state, provincial or commonwealth natural-resources department. Most of this carrier rests here, which suits it: these are the bodies that survey the water the records describe.

  • Interagency

    12

    A commission or joint survey run across several agencies, such as the Great Lakes Fishery Commission's forage task groups.

  • University

    45

    A university research programme, cooperative extension service or Sea Grant office. Published work, but not the agency that manages the water.

  • Journal

    6

    A peer-reviewed paper, or a curated scientific register such as the World Register of Marine Species. Added with the 2026-09-25 evidence review, which went to the primary study where no agency page said what a claim needed.

Probe leftovers

What the weekly check could not treat as ordinary.

These addresses are still the citations. The check named what it saw. None of them is a gone page in the MISIN sense, so the records were not rewritten to hide a redirect, a timeout, or a bot wall.

  • Iowa DNR — BluegillMoved

    The cited address answers through a permanent redirect. GET on the page that lands still names Bluegill.

    A same-site move that still names the animal is not the MISIN case. The citation stays until a reviewer reads the new address into the record.

  • CASG — market squidUnreachable from this network

    The California Sea Grant market-squid page times out from the probe network.

    NOAA still covers the same animal on this record. The CASG address stays; a timeout is not a reason to drop a citation.

  • Mass.gov — menhaden and longfin squidRefused the probe

    Both creature-feature pages answered 403 from the probe network.

    A bot wall is not evidence the page is gone. The citations stay; the weekly check does not fail the build on unverifiable.

  • Michigan DNR — crayfish identification PDFRefused the probe

    The cited PDF answered 403 from the probe network.

    A refused PDF is not a 404. The citation stays on the crayfish record until a reviewer can open it.

  • Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute — silversidesRefused the probe

    The Menidia page answered 500 from the probe network.

    A 500 is not a 404, and it is not a 403. The citation stays.

Showing 27 of 1049 claims and 8 of 224 sources.

Claims

Every reviewed line in the app.

  • Blue crab (young) →27 lines

    • What you can seeNine marginal teeth along each side of the shell, the ninth a strong lateral spineCBP-BLUE-CRABEvidence from: Atlantic coast and Gulf of Mexico (native range Nova Scotia to Argentina)
    • What you can seeThree pairs of walking legs plus a rear pair flattened into paddlesCBP-BLUE-CRAB, NOAA-BLUE-CRAB, SCDNR-BLUE-CRABEvidence from: Atlantic coast and Gulf of Mexico (native range Nova Scotia to Argentina)
    • What you can seeClaws bright blue; mature females carry coloured tipsCBP-BLUE-CRAB, NOAA-BLUE-CRAB, NJSG-BLUE-CRAB, SCDNR-BLUE-CRABEvidence from: Atlantic coast and Gulf of Mexico (native range Nova Scotia to Argentina)
    • What you can seeShell bluish to olive greenCBP-BLUE-CRAB, NOAA-BLUE-CRABEvidence from: Atlantic coast and Gulf of Mexico (native range Nova Scotia to Argentina)
    • What you can seeThe apron on the underside is narrow and T-shaped on a male, triangular on an immature female, and broad and rounded on a mature femaleCBP-BLUE-CRAB, SCDNR-BLUE-CRAB, NJSG-BLUE-CRABEvidence from: Atlantic coast and Gulf of Mexico (native range Nova Scotia to Argentina)
    • What argues against itNo claws at all, an oval shell and rear-first burrowing is a mole crabFWC-MOLE-CRAB, UF-IFAS-SAND-FLEAS
    • What argues against itA square shell with three spines a side, banded legs and red claw spots is an Asian shore crab — common and abundant on the Atlantic intertidal at exactly this sizeUSGS-ASIAN-SHORE-CRABEvidence from: US Atlantic intertidal, Maine to North Carolina
    • Declared limitNo source consulted describes a megalopa beyond its width, so this record cannot help you call one from a photograph. South Carolina's account does give the peeler signs — a white line, then a red line, just inside the edge of the swimming legs — and describes a fresh soft crab as limp and wrinkled.SCDNR-BLUE-CRABEvidence from: South Carolina
    • Declared limitNo source consulted gives a tide stage at which young crabs are most exposed.SCDNR-BLUE-CRAB, CBP-BLUE-CRAB, NOAA-BLUE-CRAB, NJSG-BLUE-CRAB
    • Declared limitThe claim that shedder crabs concentrate on particular moons or tides in a fishable way is stated by no source consulted. Moult intervals are published in days and tied to size, not to the moon.SCDNR-BLUE-CRABEvidence from: South Carolina
    • Size bandlarva: 2-3 (megalopa about 2.5 wide; zoea size not sourced) mmSCDNR-BLUE-CRABEvidence from: South Carolina
    • Size bandyoung-of-year: 5-76 mmSCDNR-BLUE-CRABEvidence from: South Carolina
    • Size bandadult: 127-254 mmSCDNR-BLUE-CRAB, CBP-BLUE-CRAB, NOAA-BLUE-CRABEvidence from: Atlantic coast and Gulf of Mexico (native range Nova Scotia to Argentina)
    • Water typeinshorerecord’s sources
    • Water typenearshorerecord’s sources
    • Life stagelarvarecord’s sources
    • Life stageyoung-of-yearrecord’s sources
    • Life stageadultrecord’s sources
    • Where it sitsthe smallest juveniles survive best in seagrass; in the York River that advantage held to about 15–20 mm across the shellFRONTIERS-BLUE-CRAB-NURSERY, CBP-BLUE-CRABEvidence from: York River, Chesapeake Bay, Virginia (one tributary; tethering experiment)
    • Where it sitslarger juveniles move to salt-marsh edge and unvegetated sand flats; in the York River, survival there matched seagrass by about 33 mm across on marsh edge and 45 mm on sandFRONTIERS-BLUE-CRAB-NURSERYEvidence from: York River, Chesapeake Bay, Virginia (one tributary; tethering experiment)
    • Where it sitson the bottom; burrowed into soft sediment in winterNOAA-BLUE-CRAB, NJSG-BLUE-CRAB, CBP-BLUE-CRABEvidence from: Chesapeake Bay
    • How it movesswims with paddle-shaped back legs, and walks as well as swimsSCDNR-BLUE-CRABEvidence from: South Carolina
    • How it movesthe postlarval stage is pushed back into the estuary by wind and tidal currentsCBP-BLUE-CRABEvidence from: Chesapeake Bay
    • How it movesstops feeding and burrows into sediment below about 50 degrees FahrenheitNJSG-BLUE-CRAB, SCDNR-BLUE-CRABEvidence from: NY/NJ Harbor Estuary account
    • Sources disagreeMating season is given as May through October in the Chesapeake account and as February to November, peaking March to July and again in October and November, in the South Carolina one. Different latitudes plausibly explain it; neither source says so.record’s sources
    • Sources disagreeLarval staging conflicts: six or more stages before the megalopa in one source, two planktonic stages in another. One appears to count instars and the other stage types, but no source reconciles them.record’s sources
    • Sources disagreeMature female claw tips are red in three sources and bright orange in a fourth.record’s sources

The pages themselves

All 224, and what each one is holding up.

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