This report was replaced in its entirety by the Virginia Marine Resources Commission on December 8, 2008.

All findings from recent reviews of the status of the Chesapeake Bay blue crab stock indicate a continuation of a low abundance of both exploitable size blue crabs (2.4 inches and greater, in carapace width) and mature female blue crabs. The most recent results, from the December 2007 – March 2008 Chesapeake Bay Winter Dredge Survey, indicates that 60% of the stock is being removed, on an annual basis, strictly from harvesting activities. This exploitation rate exceeds the target and overfishing exploitation rate of 46% and 53%, respectively. Managers within the Chesapeake Bay continue to utilize the control rule, whereby annual estimates of abundance, as well as exploitation rates, are referenced against empirical and model-based standards, respectively, to guide management efforts. The control rule is guided by an overfishing threshold, equal to an annual percentage harvest-removal rate of 53%. It may take several years of maintaining an exploitation rate, for blue crab, at or near the target exploitation rate (0.46) to increase the spawning potential of this Bay-wide stock.

Overfishing, based on the most recent data is occurring. In 7 of the last 10 years, overfishing (an exploitation rate or harvest rate greater than 53% annually) of the blue crab stock has occurred. The Chesapeake Bay blue crab stock is not overfished. The estimated 120 million harvestable-size crabs recorded from the Bay-wide winter dredge survey, from December 2007 through March 2008, was greater than the empirical overfished threshold of 86 million harvestable-size blue crabs recorded in 1999. However, since that lowest abundance, in 1999, the crab stock has never rebounded to an exploitable abundance of 200 million crabs. An abundance of 200 million crabs is viewed by Chesapeake Bay fishery managers, as an interim target level of abundance to attain, in order to provide sufficient crabs for successful replenishment and harvest. Historically, an abundance of 200 million crabs (2.4 inches and greater) has supported harvests of 60 to 70 million pounds, compared to the 2007 Bay-wide harvest of 42 million pounds.

Extensive steps were taken by the Marine Resources Commission, in 2007 and early 2008, to gather scientific expertise that could assist the Commission in assessing the degree of effectiveness of its blue crab management plan. A continued low abundance and high exploitation rates and very low recent harvests of blue crab, prompted the Commission to establish a Blue Crab Regulatory Review Committee (BCRRC), in 2007, to gain a comprehensive scientific review of its management plan. Concurrently and throughout 2008, the Commission’s Crab Management Advisory Committee met frequently and provided several key recommendations, concerning crab conservation measures. The Commission also reviewed the findings from a fall 2007 and spring 2008 advisory report conducted by the Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee, as detailed below. The Commission’s management process and actions, on behalf of the blue crab resource, are detailed, below, as the 2008 Virginia Blue Crab Fishery Management Plan.

Additional scientific expertise on the biological status of the blue crab stock was provided by the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee’s 2008 advisory report (Attachment I). These advisory reports have been an integral component in the formation of the Commission’s management measures, on an annual basis, since 1997. The advisory provides the most recent status of the stock, in terms of exploitation rates and abundance. The CBSAC reported that the abundance of spawning age crabs (age 1+) is a key indicator of stock status, and is used to determine if the population is overfished. At the beginning of the 2008 commercial season, results of the 2007-2008 WDS indicated that the abundance of age 1+ blue crabs declined slightly from 16 crabs per 1,000 square meters in 2006-2007 to 12 crabs per 1,000 square meters in 2007-2008 (Figure 1). These densities equate to estimates of spawning age abundance of 143 million crabs in 2006-2007 and 120 million crabs in 2007-2008, which is well below the target level of 200 million spawning age crabs. This interim abundance target of 200 million spawning crabs was established by the CBSAC in January of 2008 and was accepted by the Chesapeake blue crab management authorities in April of 2008.

Initially, in 2008, the Commission held several public hearings, on blue crab conservation measures, and ultimately adopted new conservation measures in February, March, April and May, as described below. Concurrently, in late winter and early spring 2008, The Secretaries of Natural Resources and staffs, from Virginia and Maryland, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the Potomac River Fisheries Commission and the Marine Resources Commission began meeting and planning a Bay-wide approach to reducing the exploitation rate and thereby increasing the abundance of spawning-size crabs. On April 15, 2008 the Governors Kaine and O’Malley endorsed a conservation plan that called for a 34% reduction in the harvest of female crabs, in 2008, relative to the amount of harvest, on average, that occurred from 2004 through 2007. By that time, the Commission had already adopted several important blue crab conservation measures (see below) but welcomed the opportunity to be part of a Bay-wide blue crab conservation plan. The 34% Bay-wide reduction of the harvest of female crabs, in 2008, was needed, to lower the exploitation rate to 46%, initially, and stimulate an increase in abundance of the stock. The 34% Bay-wide reduction in the harvest of female crabs, in 2008 offers a method to increase abundance to an interim target of 200 million harvestable-size blue crabs, especially if the overfishing target of an exploitation rate of 46% can be maintained for a few years.

The Marine Resources Commission and Maryland Department of Natural Resources collaborated on a request for disaster assistance to the National Marine Fisheries Service. The basis, for the request was the continued depleted abundance of the blue crab, and this request was submitted on June 13, 20008. The documentation, in support of asking the National Marine Fisheries Service to declare a blue crab fishery disaster, for Chesapeake Bay, can be found under Attachment II. On August 13, 2008, staff members, from the Office of the Secretary of Natural Resources, the Marine Resources Commission and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources met with national Marine Resources staff and additional information was requested of the states, especially economic data related to the blue crab fishery (Attachment III). On September 22, 2008, the Secretary of Commerce, Carlos M. Gutierrez, notified the states of Virginia and Maryland of his decision to declare a commercial fishery failure for the soft and peeler crab fisheries in the Chesapeake Bay. On October 15, 2008, Governor Kaine and Governor O’Malley thanked the Secretary of Commerce and asked him to expedite the allocation of disaster funds, insure that Virginia and Maryland receive $30 million, over the next 3 years and provide these states with the flexibility and discretion in developing and implementing the spending plans, for the fishery disaster funds. On November 18, 2008 Governor Kaine was informed by the Department of Commerce that Virginia will receive up to $10 million to respond to the Blue Crab Fishery Disaster. A variety of programs are now being considered for funding that are designed to employ crab fishermen in work programs and to involve them in other fishery ventures, like cage oyster aquaculture and spat on shell oyster production. The funds will also be utilized to reduce over-capitalization of the crab fishery through a crab license buy-back program.

The Commission has also planned, and will fund, a work program, designed to assist some of the 53 crab dredge fishermen who were impacted by the closure of the 2008/09 winter crab dredge season. This work project will utilize side-scan sonar techniques to retrieve derelict crab pots (“ghost" pots) in several areas of the Chesapeake Bay. "Ghost pots," refer to lost or abandoned fishing gear and crab pots. When left alone, the pots sink to the bottom of the water but continue to trap and kill marine life. They are typically lost during storms or when boat propellers accidentally slice through a marker buoy and rope that holds them in place. Ghost pots are also considered marine debris. Studies by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science indicate that as many as 60,000 crabs are trapped in ghost pots each year in the lower York River, alone.

The program will offer training to the commercial fishermen, on how to use the sonar to locate derelict pots, and those pots will be “grapple-hooked", from the bottom areas, using a mechanism fashioned by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. The Virginia Institute of Marine Science will provide eligible commercial fishermen, with training on the use of side-scan sonar and will also use G.I.S. programs to pinpoint environmentally sensitive areas, such as oyster beds and submerged aquatic vegetation areas, to be avoided by the derelict pot and debris removal program. This program is responsive to Section 28.2-203.1, as it offers an improvement to the crab habitat, by reducing the occurrences of mortality, for crabs that get trapped in derelict pots. Removal of derelict pots would augment the spawning stock and allow additional female crabs to spawn.

Once relief funding has been approved by the Office of Management and Budget and provided to Virginia, similar work-related programs will be implemented, by the Commission, to eligible commercial crab fishermen who were impacted by this natural resources disaster.

The Marine Resources Commission has submitted an important blue crab conservation proposal, for the 2009 Session of the General Assembly, as summarized below. The suggested legislation would authorize the Commission to adopt seasonal closures of the Blue Crab Sanctuary beyond the currently legislated closed dates of June 1 through September 15.

The basis for this proposed legislation is to protect female crabs from harvest, as early as May 1, to augment the spawning capabilities of the crab stock. Scientific findings indicate that female crabs do spawn in the lower Chesapeake Bay, as early as May 1. For over a decade, all scientific data, from fishery-independent trawl, pot and dredge surveys for over a decade, indicate the abundance of blue crab is very low. Of major concern is that the abundance of the spawning stock, as estimated from trawl surveys on the spawning grounds, has remained at low abundance, since 1992.

In response to this depleted condition of the spawning stock, the Marine Resources Commission, following a public hearing, moved the starting date of the closure of the sanctuary areas established by regulation, from June 1 to May 1. The ending date of the regulated sanctuary areas remains as September 15. These actions only applied to 786 square miles of the 928 square-mile spawning sanctuary, within the Chesapeake Bay. The remaining 142 square miles of spawning sanctuary were established by legislative action (§ 28.2-709, Code of Virginia), and the closure to harvest in this sanctuary area extends from June 1 to September 15. For the 2009 Legislative Session, the Marine Resources Commission is requesting authority to modify the current closed season of this sanctuary area. This area serves as an important spawning area, and most of the female crabs in these spawning areas have overwintered, prior to their first spawning. Given the continued low abundance of the blue crab stock, any conservation measures that would promote additional spawning can only benefit the stock.