Purpose of the report: The purpose of this report is to analyze the Virginia winter crab dredge fishery, to evaluate the impact of this fishery on the long-tern sustainability of blue crab populations, and to make management recommendations.

Status of the blue crab stock in Chesapeake Bay: There is some debate among scientists as to the exact status of the blue crab stock; however, there is consensus that the stock is fully exploited, that spawning stock biomass is below the long-term average, that average size of crabs is decreasing, that fishing effort is at near record levels and that there is no evident trend in recent recruitment.

Sex ratios of the Virginia and Maryland blue crab harvests: Because of the life cycle of the blue crab, male crabs tend to be most abundant in Maryland and female crabs tend to be most abundant in Virginia. Thus, the sex ratio of the harvest in Maryland is approximately 50% males and 50% females. The sex ratio of the harvest in Virginia from all gear types is approximately 30% males and 70% females.

Characteristics of the Virginia winter dredge fishery:

• The fishery runs from 1 December to 31 March each year.

• Data for this fishery are good and are better than for any other blue crab fishery in Chesapeake Bay.

• The fishery is well managed, with declining effort, a license cap, a daily limit, and mandatory reporting. However, even though the number of crab dredge licenses has been stabilized through regulatory action, the effective number of days fished remains somewhat open-ended. If resource conditions, prices, weather and other external conditions are favorable for any given year there could be a significant and undesirable concomitant increase in fishing effort.

• The harvest from the fishery is 96% female.

Characteristics of other blue crab fisheries:

• Major pot and trot line fisheries occur throughout the Bay in spring, summer and fall and remove a significant (but unquantified) portion of the annual standing stock of blue crabs prior to the start of the winter dredge fishery.

• In contrast to the winter dredge fishery, where effort is declining, between 1994 and 1998 there has been a 14% increase in the number of hard pot licenses and an 82% increase in the number of peeler pot licenses.

• The other blue crab fisheries account for 92.7% of the Bay-wide harvest over the last 13 years and 91.3% of the Bay-wide female harvest since 1993.

Impact of the winter dredge fishery:

• Over the last 13 years, the winter dredge fishery has accounted for 7.3% of Bay-wide harvest annually and since 1993 has accounted for 8.7% of the female crabs harvested annually.

• Since 1991, the winter dredge fishery has harvested on average 32% of the female crabs at least one year of age that reside in the Bay at the beginning of the winter dredge fishery season (that is, 32% of what is left after the other fisheries have occurred), and on average 21 % of the total crabs at least one year of age that reside in the Bay at the beginning of the winter dredge season.

Recommendations:

• The Task Force does not recommend that the winter dredge fishery be singled out for additional restrictions. However, the Task Force would not be opposed to future restrictions on the dredge fishery, if those restrictions were deemed necessary as part of an overall blue crab management plan that considered additional restrictions in all fisheries.

• Because the winter dredge fishery has the potential to significantly impact the number of over-wintering crabs, the Task Force does not recommend that any expansion of the winter dredge fishery be allowed.

• The Task Force recommends that other blue crab fisheries be assessed for their impact on blue crab stocks.

• The Task Force recommends increased funding to expand data collection to include recreational effort and harvest, sex ratio of harvest in all blue crab fisheries and effective effort of the pot fisheries.