An efficient soft crab business depends on predicting when a crab will shed. Experienced watermen watch for subtle changes in the shell, especially the color along the edges of the last two sections of the paddle fin, caused by the new shell forming beneath the old one. A white line indicates shedding in about two weeks, pink in about one week, and red in one to three days. In females, the apron turns dark purple when the crab is close to molting in the last molt before becoming a sook, or mature female. A release of hormones triggers shedding. The crab seeks shelter, often partially burying itself in the bay floor, while retained fluid causes the body to swell and split the old shell. It then backs out of the shell, claws and legs included, though limbs can be lost if they hang up during the process; crabs can regenerate them. After shedding, a crab is about one third larger. Females shed fewer times than males and are smaller as a result, likely because energy is directed to reproduction. The new shell hardens within hours, but this process stops if the crab is removed from the water. As crabs grow larger, shedding becomes more dangerous, and some die during it. Regional blue crab vocabulary includes molting for shedding, buster for a crab in the act of shedding, rank peeler for one only hours away, soft shell for one that has just shed, paper shell for one shed within the last 12 hours, buckrum for one within the last 24 hours, and green crab for one still 14 to 50 days away from shedding. Jimmie refers to a male blue crab, Sally or she-crab to an immature female, sook to a mature female, sponge crab to a female carrying fertilized eggs, and whitey to a recently molted crab with little meat and a luminous white abdomen.