Green tags affixed to Dungeness crab are an invitation for harvesters in Puget Sound to participate in a region-wide tracking project to learn about crab migration.
The Suquamish Tribe and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) teamed up in September 2025 to collect and tag 555 legal-sized male Dungeness crab in mid-Puget Sound so they can learn more about adult crab movement behavior, said Viviane Barry, the tribe’s shellfish program manager.
Over four days, scientists collected crab and related data, including carapace width, species, sex and shell conditions such as firmness before affixing them with a green tag.
Each thin tag has an ID number and a phone number. When a tagged crab is caught, harvesters are asked to call or text the phone number listed and report where the crab was found. This project only works if people report each tagged crab and provide accurate harvest locations, said Gianna Pantaleo, a shellfish biologist for the tribe.
The tribe and WDFW noted the latitude and longitude where they released each tagged crab, at six different spots between Apple Tree Cove near Kingston and Alki Point near West Seattle, so having crabbers report recapture locations will provide shellfish managers with valuable information.
“Then we can figure out how far the crab have traveled,” Pantaleo said.
As of December, more than 40 crab have been reported.
“People are really excited about this project,” said Korie Griffith, WDFW shellfish biologist. “People are really curious where their crab came from.”
While all the data goes into a centralized reporting system managed by WDFW, the information will help both tribal and state shellfish managers.
“In commercial crabbing especially, there’s a lot of fluctuation and abundance in the crab harvest, so the more data we have on the crab population, the better informed we’re going to be to manage this resource,” Barry said.
The project initially started with the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, which began tagging crab in early 2025. Swinomish staff then worked with other tribal and state shellfish staff to dial in data collection and tagging procedures to make it consistent across the region.
While the Suquamish Tribe hasn’t done a recapture migration study like this before, they have been involved in an ongoing crab larvae migration study for the past six years.
The two studies combined could inform crab stock origins and abundance projections in the future, Barry said.
“I think this is a kind of project that offers supplemental information to try and fit the bigger picture of how our crab are being dispersed and what that looks like in Puget Sound,” Pantaleo said.
Caught a crab with a green tag?
Call or text the phone number on the tag to report capture location and receive further instructions.
A green tag on a Dungeness crab indicates that it is part of the Suquamish Tribe and WDFW’s adult crab migration study. Story: Tiffany Royal; Photo: Suquamish Tribe
