Chesapeake Bay News

On April 14, The governors of Virginia and Maryland announced that the Chesapeake Bay blue crab population has increased for the second year in a row because of a landmark stock rebuilding program.  The latest survey estimates the population has risen to 658 million crabs, a 60 percent increase from last year and the highest seen since 1997.

The population estimate is the result of the 2009-2010 bay-wide winter dredge survey conducted annually by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS).

Speaking about the announcement, Virginia Governor McDonnell remarked, “Protecting and improving the Chesapeake Bay, including the blue crab population, was a priority I outlined during my campaign.  This is shaping up to be a tremendous environmental success story. The crab population is booming. Harvests are up. Our commercial crabbers’ jobs and the waterman’s way of life now appear to be on the path to sustainability.  This is great news for everyone who makes their living by crabbing and for everyone who enjoys genuine Chesapeake Bay crab cakes and she-crab soup.”

Governor McDonnell continued, “While great strides have been made to rebuild our environmentally and economically important crab population, more work remains to be done with our steadfast Maryland partners. Two years does not make a trend.  The scientific evidence shows our management measures are working but we need to continue along this path in order to ensure the Bay’s crab population returns to robustness and remains at that level.  Improving the Bay and the blue crab population will continue to be a priority of mine over the next four years.”

Governor O’Malley also commented, “Today, we can see firsthand what progress looks and feels like on the Chesapeake Bay.  Today, because of the unprecedented partnership between Maryland and Virginia and tough decisions over the past two years, the Chesapeake Bay blue crab population is estimated to be 658 million crabs — a 60 percent increase over last year and the highest total population estimate since 1997.  While we are making progress, our work is not done and we are committed to working with our partners to achieve our ultimate goal of a self-sustaining fishery that will support our industry and recreational fisheries over the long term.”

Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources Doug Domenech noted, “Our watermen are due gratitude for their endurance during this stock rebuilding, and for their conservation efforts.  With more crabs in the water, watermen should see bigger harvests with less effort and fewer costs.  The Virginia Marine Resources Commission deserves credit for its steadfast resolve to enact and maintain the regulations necessary to rebuild the crab fishery with our partners in Maryland.”

Rom Lipcius, who directs the Virginia component of the dredge survey for VIMS, said, “The substantial rise in abundance of mature crabs and juveniles was clearly a response of the crab population to unprecedented management actions, such as the closure of the winter dredge fishery, by the Virginia Marine Resources Commission and partner agencies.  The increase was neither a random event nor a reflection of improved environmental conditions. From here on, we have to maintain the population at these levels to ensure the long-term sustainability and resilience of the Chesapeake Bay stock.”

The results of the most recent annual winter crab dredge survey indicate 2008 management measures enacted as part of a historic collaboration with Maryland and the Potomac River Fisheries Commission are succeeding but not completed.  Two years ago, that survey estimated the bay-wide blue crab population to be a mere 298 million crabs, prompting a series of coordinated harvest reduction strategies by Virginia, Maryland, and PRFC fishery managers.  Last year, the survey estimated 403 million crabs overwintered in the Chesapeake Bay.

The new survey also shows a baby boom – an almost doubling of the number of juvenile crabs, making it the largest new generation of crabs since 1997 and an encouraging development that wasn’t seen last year.
In 2008, Maryland, Virginia and the PRFC took strong, coordinated action to reduce harvest pressure on female crabs by 34 percent. At that time, scientists from all three jurisdictions deemed conservation measures necessary as blue crab suffered near historic lows in spawning stock.

The 2008 conservation measures resulted in a large increase in the number of adults in the bay during the 2009 spawning season, and this year’s survey confirms that success has carried over into a healthy spawn. Crab reproduction this year was the sixth highest in the 21-year survey. The abundance of both adult female and male crabs also rose again this year, bringing the estimated number of spawning-age crabs to 315 million, well above the interim target level of 200 million.
In seven of the 10 years between 1998 and 2007, the annual removal of blue crabs bay-wide exceeded the “safe” removal level of 53 percent.

Preliminary numbers indicate the 2009 bay-wide harvest was 53 million pounds, the third largest in the past 10 years. Virginia’s harvest last year appears to have increased by more than 30 percent, from 17.3 million to 22.5 million pounds.

Despite the increased harvest, last year’s bay-wide fishery removal rate was approximately 43 percent, which was lower than the 46 percent target established by scientists, who say this is key to maintaining a healthy population.

The bay-wide blue crab winter dredge survey is the primary survey used to assess the condition of the Chesapeake Bay blue crab population. Since 1990, the survey has employed crab dredges to sample blue crabs at 1,500 sites throughout the Chesapeake Bay from December through March. By sampling during winter when blue crabs are buried in the mud and stationary, scientists can develop, with good precision, estimates of the number of crabs present in the bay.

Estimates of abundance are developed separately for young-of-the-year crabs, mature female crabs, and adult male crabs. Together, these groups of crabs will support the 2010 fishery and produce the next generation of crabs.

In 2008, Virginia and Maryland asked the U.S. Department of Commerce to declare the Chesapeake Bay crab fishery a federal disaster due to the historic low blue crab population. Under that designation, $15 million in crab disaster funds from NOAA‘s National Marine Fisheries Service were appropriated for each state to help rescue the crab population and provide needed economic relief to the commercial fishing industry.

Virginia’s crab disaster funds were used to buy back 359 commercial crab licenses in order to reduce actual or potential crab fishing; to employ out-of-work watermen who pulled up 18,000 derelict crab pots over the past two winters; and to train crabbers in shellfish farming.

source: VMRC press release

to Explore New Ways of Managing the Blue Crab Fishery

The Maryland Watermen’s Association (MWA) and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) have come together to explore alternative management strategies for the Chesapeake Bay blue crab fishery. This joint commitment, solidified by a formal memorandum of understanding, is intended to improve fishery management and increase benefits to watermen.

This unique partnership comes at a critical time in the lives of Chesapeake Bay watermen and the iconic blue crab population, which has been the foundation of Chesapeake Bay culture, heritage and livelihoods for more than a century. In an unprecedented partnership in 2008 to help rebuild the shared resource, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley worked with then-Virginia Governor Tim Kaine to enact regulations reducing female blue crab harvest.

To mitigate the economic impact on the industry, U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), a steadfast leader in protecting the watermen’s way of life, worked with Governor O’Malley to secure disaster assistance funding in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) budget for the blue crab fishery. That funding supported a DNR-initiative to investigate and assess alternative management approaches, which could improve the situation for commercial crabbers while helping in the overall restoration of the Bay.

“Blue crabs are part of who we are as Marylanders, part of our heritage and part of our culture. And so are the watermen of the Chesapeake Bay. I am committed to the Bay and the lives and livelihoods that depend on it,” said Senator Mikulski, Chairwoman of the Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Subcommittee that funds NOAA. “When the Maryland’s crab industry dialed 911 during 2008′s Blue Crab disaster, I was on their side fighting for $30 million to provide watermen with work opportunities, while at the same time restoring crab stocks and rebuilding habitats such as oyster reefs. This unique partnership shows Marylanders are looking at the future of the Bay and want a cooperative and coordinated solution for preserving their blue crabs.”

“Maryland’s watermen are ready to lead efforts to protect their livelihood—the Chesapeake blue crab,” says Larry Simns, President of the MWA. “The partnership with EDF is focused on exploring alternative management systems that will protect the heritage of Maryland watermen and the blue crab fishery, and it wouldn’t be possible without the leadership of U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski on behalf of Maryland’s watermen.”

“We’d like to thank Senator Mikulski, the Maryland DNR and the MWA for the opportunity to assist in this effort,” says Tom Grasso, Senior Advisor in the Oceans Program at EDF. “Working together, we believe we can help identify a new economic management structure for the blue crab fishery which will promote a secure and stable livelihood for Maryland’s watermen. This partnership between EDF and MWA is a clear indication of a joint commitment between watermen and environmentalists to being integral partners in an effective solution.”

“We are pleased to support this new partnership between EDF and MWA, which will contribute to our continued efforts to protect and enhance blue crab populations, while also improving economic opportunities for Maryland watermen, our processing industry and the local communities that depend on these jobs,” says DNR Secretary John Griffin.

The Virginia Marine Resources Commission will buy back 359 commercial crab licenses, in a historic action to take more than 75,000 crab pots off the water as part of a multi-year species rebuilding effort.

The licenses will be retired permanently. The removal of 75,441 licensed crab pots represents an almost 20 percent reduction in the number of pots permitted for use in Virginia waters.

“This far surpassed our expectations,’’ said VMRC Commissioner Steven G. Bowman. “This is a great long-term benefit for this environmentally and economically important species.”

The license buyback program closed on Nov. 1. A total of 664 bids were received, in the first ever so-called reverse auction in which crabbers submitted non-negotiable bids and gave the lowest offer they would accept for the purchase of their licenses.

The bids were analyzed and matched to the harvest histories of each bidder. Purchase priority was given for the licenses used most often, and number of pots permitted for each license, in order to reduce the fishing effort in the most cost-efficient manner.

Acceptance letters to the holders of the 359 licenses accepted for the buyback were mailed on Nov. 20. Checks will be written within the next few weeks.

Payments will be made from a pool of $6.7 million appropriated by the federal government as part of a blue crab disaster designation by the National Marine Fisheries Service last year. The VMRC’s license buyback program was enthusiastically approved by NMFS.

License buyback offers were accepted from 59 full-time commercial crabbers, 131 part-time crabbers and 169 crabbers who had not used their licenses since 2004 and were put on a waiting list until the crab population rebounds and stabilizes at high levels for three consecutive years.

Those full-time crabbers held licenses that permitted the use of 14,299 crab pots; 27,733 pots for part-timers; and 33,409 for those on the waiting list.

“It is especially important to ensure the long-term viability of our rebuilding efforts to retire licenses held by those on the waiting list. When the overall crab population returns to abundance, those licenses could significantly undermine the stability of the stock if they were put back in use,’’ said VMRC Fisheries Chief Jack Travelstead. “This is money well spent for the future of this fishery.”

Removing 75,441 crab pots from circulation is a reduction of 18 percent of the 423,000 crab pots that had been licensed for use in Virginia waters.

Retiring 359 crab licenses from the books will leave 1,649 licenses in circulation, including 314 licenses that cannot currently be used because they are on a waiting list. The number of crab licenses issued was capped in 1998.

The bids received varied widely. Full-time crabber bids ranged from $5,000 to $600,000; part-timer bids ranged from $500 to $634,000; and bids from those on the waiting list ranged from $500 to $300,000.

The accepted bids ranged from $500 to $175,000.

Last year, the VMRC and Maryland officials confronted a dangerously low crab population and enacted a bay-wide 34 percent harvest reduction strategy in an effort to rebuild a stock in danger of crashing in the event of a single poor year of reproduction.

At that point, the Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab population had plummeted 70 percent since 1993.

The VMRC banned the winter dredging of crabs last year and this year, shortened the season for harvest of female crabs, required larger escape rings on crab pots, and enacted a waiting list for inactive licenses.

Within a year, the bay-wide adult crab population doubled, according to a scientific crab population survey that has proven over decades to be highly accurate. Results of this winter’s survey will guide the VMRC in future crab management decisions.

“We are stewards of our marine resources and we take our jobs seriously,” said Bowman. “We will do what is necessary.”

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has announced that it is revising the Commercial Limited Crab Catcher (LCC) License Buy-Back Program. The agency began the voluntary Buy-Back program in July in an effort to reduce the amount of latent (inactive) effort in Maryland’s commercial blue crab fishery.

The large amount of potential crabbing effort in the Maryland fishery poses a long-term biological and economic threat to the crab population, as an unknown number of inactive licenses may re-enter the fishery in any year. On July 8 the Department sent all (3,676) latent and active LCC license holders a letter offering to permanently buy back licenses through a process called a reverse auction. The reverse auction offered individuals an opportunity to submit a bid to the Department for the amount of money for which they would be willing to permanently relinquish their license.

DNR chose to use a reverse auction approach to help set a fair value for an LCC license. The goal of the Buy-Back Program is to buy and permanently retire 2,000 LCC licenses. The deadline to participate in the initial offer was July 31.

A total of 494 LCC-holders submitted bids to the Department by the deadline. While participation in the auction was less than the Department had hoped, the bids submitted did provide important data to allow DNR to determine a fair value for an LCC license. Based on the limited participation in the first wave, and the Department’s desire to acquire additional LCC licenses in the future, DNR is revising and extending its program offer.

All initial bids will be formally declined. Instead, the Department will immediately offer a fixed price of $2,260 to all LCC holders who may wish to sell their license. DNR used the 494 bids received through the reverse auction to determine a fixed, fair value for an LCC license.

“By establishing a fixed sales price for an LCC license we can now eliminate uncertainty for the license holder,” said DNR Secretary John Griffin. “In addition, we plan to extend this offer to LCC license holders until the funding for this project is exhausted. We feel that this course of action will ultimately get us closer to achieving our goal.”

Each LCC license holder that submitted a bid in July will be receiving a letter from DNR by August 21 with the fair value counteroffer of $2,260, regardless of the value of their original offer. This letter will contain the instructions necessary for a licensee to accept this counteroffer and surrender his/her license to the Department.

In the next few weeks, all additional LCC-holders who did not participate in the reverse auction will receive a similar letter, providing them another opportunity to accept the counter offer.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), through Federal Blue Crab Disaster Funds, is providing funding for the LCC Buy-Back Program. The funding was secured under the leadership of Governor Martin O’Malley, Senator Barbara Mikulski and the Maryland Congressional Delegation in 2008.

While the overall crab population in the Chesapeake Bay rebounded significantly last year, the number of juvenile crabs remained well below the historical average, according to a report published by the NOAA-chaired Fisheries Steering Committee.

“New regulations implemented by the various bay jurisdictions in 2008 seem to be working,” said Peyton Robertson, director of the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office. “The continued improvements in science and their application to management appear to be resulting in a
positive direction for the blue crab in the Chesapeake.”

The 2009 Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab Advisory Report, developed by the Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee, is based primarily on data collected in the 2008-09 bay-wide winter dredge survey, the most comprehensive and statistically robust annual blue crab survey
conducted in the bay.

The data shows:

Abundance of blue crabs over the age of one was 223 million, a 70 percent increase from the 2007-08 survey numbers. This was primarily due to an increase in abundance of spawning-age females. Since the winter dredge survey began in 1990, the average blue crab population in the bay has been 186 million.

Bay-wide, numbers of juvenile crabs entering the population did not increase appreciably. There were an estimated 179 million juvenile crabs in the bay—well below the survey’s long-term average of 258 million.

The estimated 2008 harvest of blue crabs from the bay and tributaries was 48.6 million pounds—11 percent higher than the record-low 43.5 million pounds in 2007, but well below the long-term average of 74 million pounds.

Based on these statistics, an estimated 48 percent of crabs were harvested from the bay by commercial and recreational fishers in 2008. That is below the overfishing threshold of 53 percent, but slightly above the target of 46 percent.

“While it is heartening to see numbers rebound, resource managers need to maintain conservation measures until their full effects are known,” Robertson said. “We won’t know the full effectiveness of the new regulations implemented in 2008 until we study results from the next two winter dredge surveys.”

The Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee includes fisheries scientists from the University of Maryland, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, NOAA’s Fisheries Service and the states of Maryland and Virginia. The Fisheries Steering Committee works with the various bay management jurisdictions and is a forum where fisheries management agencies communicate and coordinate decisions across management boundaries.

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley and Virginia Governor Tim Kaine have announced the Chesapeake Bay’s adult population of blue crabs has increased substantially over last year, indicating management measures put into place in 2008 to address population declines are working.  The results of the most recent bay-wide winter dredge survey, which is conducted annually by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), estimate the total number of crabs overwintering in the Chesapeake Bay during 2008-2009 has increased from 280 million in 2007-2008 to just over 400 million.

The increase in abundance is primarily due to a striking increase in the number of adult female crabs, nearly double last year’s estimate.  Coupled with a 50 percent increase in abundance of adult males, overall adult abundance in 2008-2009 is estimated to be approximately 240 million crabs —  slightly over the interim target level of 200 million set by the Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee in early 2008.

Despite the adult population increase, the abundance of young-of-the-year crabs (less than 2 inches across the carapace) did not change measurably from last year, and remains below the 18-year survey average.  These crabs will become vulnerable to the fisheries late in the 2009 season and represent the 2010 spawning potential.

“The success of these management measures sets the stage for the next step of recovery for the Bay’s blue crab, an increase in juveniles that we hope to see next year,” said Governor O’Malley. “The ultimate challenge, of course, is to achieve sustainable crab fishery and maintain it over time.”

“We recognize that this success did not come without unavoidable economic impact to those who work in Maryland’s crabbing industry,” added Governor O’Malley. “I thank them for their conservation efforts and remain committed to mitigating the impact of conservation measures on our working families as we work to create a more profitable and sustainable crab fishery.”

“This is terrific news and a great first step, but this does not mean the problem is solved,” said Governor Kaine. “This scientific survey clearly shows we are on the right path but we need to continue our conservation efforts to rebuild this environmentally and economically vital species. I want to thank our crab industry for their support and endurance through these difficult times.”

Last spring, in response to scientific data that showed the Bay-wide population of blue crabs had plunged 70 percent since 1993, the two Governors agreed to work collaboratively on a Bay-wide effort to rebuild the species by reducing the harvest of the spawning stock of female blue crabs by 34 percent in 2008.

At that time, scientists from both states deemed conservation measures necessary as blue crabs suffered near historic lows in spawning stock.  Despite the states’ shared harvest target of 46 percent, in place since 2001, the combination of low abundance of crabs and continuing high fishing pressure led to more than 60 percent of the Bay’s crab population being harvested in 2007.

Overall, the survey indicates that the 2008 coordinated management actions implemented by the State of Maryland, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the Potomac River Fisheries Commission, were collectively effective at increasing the abundance of spawning–age females, a major goal of the 2008 conservation measures.  These adult females will spawn this summer, and the resulting young crabs will be measured as young-of-the-year during the 2009-2010 survey.  It is expected that the large number of mature female crabs conserved last year will significantly increase the chances of a strong spawn in 2009.

“While we are still above our target exploitation rate of 46 percent, the survey results represent an important first success in moving the Bay’s blue crab population to a healthier state,” said DNR Secretary John Griffin. “Now we must have the discipline to stay the course, so that we may ultimately achieve and maintain a sustainable fishery.”

“It is pleasing to see this collaborative effort to rebuild the Bay’s blue crab population achieve so much, so fast,” said Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources L. Preston Bryant, Jr. “While much remains to be done, sound science shows we are on the way to creating a sustainable blue crab fishery.”

“The sharp increase in crab abundance was not a random event, nor was it due to improved environmental conditions. It was clearly due to the recent management actions,” said Dr. Rom Lipcius, who directs the VIMS component of the dredge survey. “Now, we have to ensure that these females survive to spawn this summer, and that their offspring produce a healthy spawning stock in coming years.”

Based upon winter dredge survey results, Maryland and Virginia may allow for a modest increase in the harvest of female crabs, while still focusing on the shared goal of ensuring that no more than 46 percent of the available crabs are removed in any year.  The details of any changes to catch limits and or closing dates will be developed in coordination among the management jurisdictions and in consultation with stakeholders. Changes are anticipated by the end of May.

The Bay jurisdictions will be working through 2009 to establish long term management approaches that will maintain focus on annual removal rates,  improve the efficiency and predictability of blue crab management (i.e. develop harvest allocation by jurisdiction) and increase the level of certainty in our management actions (i.e. addressing latent effort).

Governor O’Malley has worked with Maryland legislators to identify funding to help mitigate the economic impact of the regulations on the blue crab industry. The majority of $3 million designated from the State’s FY ’09 Capital budget has funded a work program through which more than 500 watermen have conducted oyster bar rehabilitation activities; $500,000 has been allocated to fund aquaculture projects. An additional $3 million is included in the State’s FY ’10 budget to continue this important work.

In September 2008, Maryland and Virginia were each awarded $10 million in federal blue crab disaster funds from NOAA‘s National Marine Fisheries Service, in response to a request from Governors O’Malley and Kaine, and advocacy by the Maryland Congressional Delegation under the leadership of Senator Barbara Mikulski. Each State also expects to receive $5 million in additional federal disaster funding as a result of recent federal budget action.

Maryland has committed much of its federal blue crab fisheries disaster money toward additional work for watermen, addressing critical issues such as the large volume of unused crabbing licenses ($4 million have been targeted for license buy–backs), a quality crab meat assurance program, additional funding for economic diversification into aquaculture, and enhanced enforcement of crabbing restrictions.

The Bay-wide blue crab winter dredge survey is a cooperative effort between DNR and VIMS, and is the primary survey used to assess the condition of the Chesapeake Bay blue crab population. Since 1990, the survey has employed crab dredges to sample blue crabs at 1,500 sites throughout the Chesapeake Bay from December through March. By sampling during winter when blue crabs are buried in the mud and stationary, scientists can develop, with good precision, estimates of the number of crabs present in the Bay.

Estimates of abundance are developed separately for young of the year crabs, mature female crabs, and adult male crabs. Together, these groups of crabs will support the 2009 fishery and produce the next generation of crabs. In May, the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee (CBSAC) will conduct a complete examination of the blue crab data including dredge survey results and 2008 harvest information. The results of this analysis will be presented in the 2009 Blue Crab Advisory Report to be released in late summer of 2009.

Additional information is available at http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/crab/031709crabdredgebrief.pdf.

Public Comment Encouraged at Three Open Houses

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is holding a series of Open Houses to address the issue of unused blue crab licenses.

In December 2008, DNR proposed regulations for the blue crab fishery that included a proposal to freeze all Limited Crab Harvester (LCC) commercial licenses that had not reported any crab harvest from 2004 to 2008. During the public discussion of this proposal, it became clear that a more extensive citizen participation process was needed. The Department withdrew the LCC license component from this year’s regulatory package.

“The Department remains committed to addressing the issue of unused crab licenses,” said Tom O’Connell, Director of DNR Fisheries Services. “We are holding this series of open houses to provide information that outlines the problems associated with unused crab licenses, provide responses to the concerns that have been raised by the public comment period and ask the public to provide constructive suggestions for short and long term solutions.”

Open houses are scheduled for:

April 16, 2009 – 1:00pm to 8:00pm

Earleigh Heights Fire Hall

161 Ritchie Highway

Severna Park, MD 21146

April 20, 2009 – 1:00pm to 8:00p

Black Diamond Lodge

310 N. Fruitland Blvd. (next to Adam’s Ribs)

Fruitland, MD 21826

April 21, 2009 – 1:00pm to 8:00p

Easton Armory

7111 Ocean Gateway

Easton, MD 21601

The Open Houses are designed as educational exhibits that the public can attend at any time during the opening hours and stay as long as they wish. DNR Staff will be onhand to discuss the potential problems associated with unused crab licenses and listen to constructive input about possible solutions. For more information, call the Blue Crab Hotline at 410-260-8286.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has adopted new regulations for the 2009 recreational and commercial blue crab fisheries. Like the 2008 regulations, these regulations are designed to achieve the target annual fishing level of 46 percent, with a continued focus on protecting mature female crabs to accelerate stock rebuilding. The target removal rate is based on advice of the Chesapeake Bay Program Stock Assessment Committee and represents the percentage of crabs that can be safely removed from the population each year.

“Once again, the Maryland regulations are closely coordinated with actions undertaken by the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Potomac River Fisheries Commission to ensure a Bay wide approach to blue crab conservation and management,” said DNR Secretary John Griffin.

During the summer and fall of 2008, the Department worked closely with the blue crab industry to develop alternative management strategies for 2009.

“The 2009 regulations are designed to spread the regulatory impact throughout the crabbing season,” said Frank W. Dawson, DNR Assistant Secretary for Aquatic Resources Programs. “The 2008 crabbing restrictions were focused on the fall of the year, which disproportionately impacted the Lower Eastern Shore. The new proposals strive to maintain adequate conservation of females and meet the management principles of measurability, reliability and enforceability. In 2009, DNR will use Federal Fisheries Disaster Funds to place at least two additional enforcement officers on the water to ensure compliance to the blue crab regulations.”

The new regulation contains a combination of daily bushel limits for mature female hard crabs and periods of closure for harvest of mature female hard crabs. Mature female hard crab bushel limits will be assigned based on license type. The regulation further provides DNR with the authority to establish and modify a season or catch limit by public notice based on continuous monitoring of stock conditions and harvest rates.

Based on a large volume of public comment, the Department withdrew the Limited Crab Catcher (LCC) component of the proposal which would have frozen latent (unused) LCC licenses that have not been used during the years 2004 through 2008.

“During the course of public comment on the proposed 2009 regulations, the vast majority of verbal and written comment was directed at this latent effort provision,” said DNR Secretary John R. Griffin.”Many of those who commented expressed concern over the fairness of freezing the commercial licenses of individuals who have not been crabbing in efforts to restore crab populations. Others expressed concern that the proposal does not adequately address the full challenge of protecting a stressed crab population from over 6,000 commercial licensees, when less than one third of those licensees reported catching crabs in recent years.”

Latent effort in the blue crab fishery remains a major concern as the work to rebuild blue crab populations continues. Latent effort is defined as licensed potential fishing effort that has not been used to full capacity in recent years. This includes licenses that are held, but not used, and fishermen that are fishing below licensed capacity. Large amounts of licensed latent effort re-entering the fishery could short circuit the rebuilding process.

DNR has initiated a review of management goals and public comment on the latent effort issue to identify alternative solutions. The Department expects to re-propose regulatory action later this spring so that a regulation to address latent effort is effective by September 1, 2009.

Finally, there are no significant changes to the recreational fishery under the adopted 2009 regulations. Regulations prohibiting the harvest of all female crabs (except soft crabs) to recreational crabbers remain in place for 2009.

The Department withdrew the portion of the 2009 regulatory proposal that would have required a free registration for crabbers not currently required to have a license. The Department will continue to evaluate options to improve its ability to more accurately estimate the harvest of crabs by recreational crabbers.

Closure Dates & Bushel Limits

The season closure dates for commercial harvest of mature female hard crabs are:

1. June 1 through June 15, inclusive;
2. September 26 through October 4, inclusive; and
3. November 11 through December 15 inclusive.

Final bushel limits and closures may be modified after the results of the winter dredge survey are announced in April, 2009. Defining bushel limits and closures by public notice will allow the Department the flexibility to adjust restrictions so that the fishery continues to harvest no more than 46% of the total crab abundance.

Public Comment Period on Proposed Commercial Blue Crab Regulations Extended

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources has extended the public comment period for proposed commercial blue crab regulations through the close of business on Friday, February 27, 2009. Public comment is an important part of the regulatory process. Based on the large public response thus far, the Department is extending the public comment period to provide the public with an additional opportunity to comment on the proposed changes.

The proposed regulations can be viewed in the January 16, 2009 volume of the Maryland Register or online at http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/regulations/proposedregulations.html.

Comments may be submitted:

by email to fisheriespubliccomment@dnr.state.md.us

fax to:

410-260-8310

by mail to:

Maryland Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Service
ATTN: Crab Public Comment
580 Taylor Ave. B-2
Annapolis, MD 21401.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Fisheries Service has released the 2008 blue crab harvest estimates from Maryland’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay. The Fisheries Service announced that the 2008 female harvest in Maryland was reduced between 28 to 36%. Based primarily on analyses of DNR independent surveys, Maryland estimates that 8.5 to 10.5 million pounds of female crabs were landed in 2008.

In 2008, the O’Malley-Brown Administration in cooperation with Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine took action to rebuild the Chesapeake Bay’s beleaguered blue crab population by reducing the harvest of ecologically valuable female blue crabs by 34 percent beginning in 2008.

“Had the regulations inspired by the actions of Governors O’Malley and Kaine not been in place, the 2008 Maryland female harvest was projected to have been approximately 13 million pounds,” said Tom O’Connell, Director of the DNR Fisheries Service. “Our estimates show a significant reduction in the number of female crabs taken in 2008.”

These estimates are based for the first time primarily on fishery independent data collected by DNR biologists.

The decision was made to base this year’s harvest estimates on fishery independent data due tosig significant discrepancies between the 2008 harvest reports from watermen and independent harvest measures observed in DNR surveys. Adjustments to reported harvest are not unprecedented. In the past, harvest numbers in both Maryland and Virginia have been adjusted to account for changes in commercial harvester reporting systems.

While annual harvest numbers are an important management tool, the most reliable measure of the health of the blue crab population is the Bay-wide winter dredge survey. The Bay-wide blue crab winter dredge survey, currently underway in a cooperative effort by DNR and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, will offer a more complete picture of blue crab population numbers once completed later this spring. Since 1990, the survey has employed dredges to sample blue crabs at 1,500 sites throughout the Chesapeake Bay from December through March. Officials claim that by sampling during winter when blue crabs are buried in the mud and stationary, scientists can precisely estimate the number of crabs in the Bay. Results of the 2009 blue crab winter dredge survey will provide the basis for potential management actions in 2009 and beyond.

Final estimates of the 2008 harvest and the resulting harvest reduction will be subject to review by members of the Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee (CBSAC).

For 2009, DNR has proposed regulations that seek to:

* Maintain the target fishing removal level of 46% of the population.

* Continue to focus on conserving female crabs in order to rapidly build the spawning population.

* Distribute the impact of the commercial regulations over the crabbing season rather than focusing regulations in September and October as was done last year in 2008.

* Begin addressing the large number of unused crab licenses that have the potential to re-enter the fishery.

* Develop a sample frame so that recreational harvest of blue crabs, which is largely unknown, can be estimated.

For more information on what citizens and business can do to help protect blue crabs and the Chesapeake Bay visit http://www.dnr.state.md.us/bay/tribstrat/index.html.