Missouri Department of Conservation resource scientists found an unexpected guest recently when they pulled a net during fish sampling in the Mississippi River.

Southeast Missouri State University graduate student Nick Kramer, working with colleagues Wes Sleeper and Mark Hempel, pulled the net containing a male blue crab, according to a news release from the Missouri Department of Conservation.

"Part of the exciting aspect of river research is that when you use a type of gear, you never quite know what you'll get when you pull it back out of the water," Kramer said in the release. "While adult crabs typically prefer salt to brackish water along the coast, they can tolerate and live in fresh water."

The find was made in the river at Cape Girardeau.

"They typically put in at either Red Star or the Diversion Channel and go out," department media specialist Candice Davis said.

The crab's origin and how it came to be in the Mississippi River remain unknown.

The only other record of a blue crab this far north on the Mississippi or its tributaries was in 2004, Frank Nelson, Department of Conservation wetlands ecologist, said in the release.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service took one off a power-plant intake screen in the Ohio River near Metropolis, Illinois.

Nelson, who could not be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon, said in the release sometimes species can swim hundreds of miles; others are dispersed by water flow.

People sometimes inadvertently transport "hitchhikers" on boats and other vehicles or dump aquatic species into lakes and rivers out of convenience, Nelson said.

The fish sampling is part of a statewide paddlefish research project, the release said.

Researchers are looking for quality, self-sustaining wild populations of paddlefish to ensure harvest opportunities for commercial and recreational fishing.

The crab will not have any effect on the study.

Pertinent address:

Mississippi River, Cape Girardeau, MO