These post that I have been writing about crabs and peelers are probably in reverse order for most people to understand what a peeler is.  Crabs don't grow like people or most other animals.  Crabs grow by shedding their old outer body. In other words they peel their old shell.   A lot of times people see me throwing my small crabs back overboard (a crab needs to be 5 in. to be legal).  They later thank me for doing this when they start catching some large crabs.  They really think that the small crabs have fed and grown but that's not the case.  It just is that larger crabs have moved in to that part of the water.   For a crab to grow the crab must shed its old shell.  When it does this it grows about one-third in size.  The picture in this post shows the old shell that the crab came out of and size it is after it sheds.