RD346 - The 2010 Virginia Blue Crab Fishery Management Plan


Executive Summary:
All findings from the 2010 review of the status of the Chesapeake Bay blue crab stock indicate an improvement over the 2009 status of this stock and its fisheries.

The December 2009–March 2010 Bay-wide Winter Dredge Survey results indicate major improvement in the abundance of the blue crab, for the second consecutive winter. The abundance of spawning-age crabs was 315 million and was higher than the previous winter abundance (223 million). Spawning-age crabs include males and females, and these spawning-age females spawned in spring or summer of 2010, for the first or subsequent time. This marks two consecutive winters, wherein the abundance of this size category of crabs (> 2.4 inches, in carapace width) exceeded an interim target established, by Bay scientists and managers, as 200million spawning-age crabs. That amount of crab abundance was last exceeded in winter 1992-93.

The production of new crabs or recruits (crabs less than 2.4 inches in carapace width) was 345 million, as determined from the winter 2009-10 survey. This abundance is twice the abundance of the previous winter’s sampling throughout the Bay, and is the highest abundance of recruits since the winter 1996-97 Bay-wide sampling. This component of the stock provides harvestable size crabs in the fall, and, more importantly, represents a substantial fraction of the future spawning stock.

The estimated 2009 Bay-wide crab commercial harvest was 54.7 million pounds, nearly 13% higher than the estimated 2008 Bay-wide crab harvest of 48.6 million pounds and nearly 26% higher than the record-low 2007 harvest of 43.5 million pounds. The 2009 Maryland commercial harvest was estimated as 28.5 million pounds. The 2009 Virginia harvest was 23.34 million pounds, while 2.86 million pounds were reported harvested in the jurisdictional waters of the Potomac River Fisheries Commission. The increase in harvest was proportionally greater in Virginia’s Chesapeake area, as compared to the other jurisdictions. The 2009 Virginia harvest from the Chesapeake Bay, its tributaries and the Potomac River tributaries to Virginia was 35% higher than the 2008 Virginia harvest from these areas.

The impressive nature of the 2009 crab pot harvest was that it “tracked” the increase in abundance of spawning-age crabs, as a result of the Commission essentially maintaining the same regulations, in 2009, that were implemented in 2008. The other impressive statistic about the harvest of hard crabs in 2009 was that the harvest per trip, on average for 2009, was 406 pounds per trip, as compared to 356 pounds per trip in 2008 and 386 pounds per trip, on average, for the 2004-07 fisheries. So far, reported harvest data for 2010 are preliminary, but the March through June 2010 data indicate about a 12% increase in the harvest of hard crabs, as compared those months’ harvests during 2008. These trends represent positive financial gains to the industry and the Commonwealth. The peeler and soft crab harvests (pounds) did not increase in 2009, and have remained relatively low, at about 900,000 pounds, since 2006. However, preliminary 2010 data indicate a 14% increase in peeler and soft crab harvests, as compared to 2009.

For the third consecutive crab pot and peeler pot season (March 17 through November 30), the Commission maintained crab fishery management measures that conserved female crabs, in an attempt to promote increases in spawning activities. Starting in 2008, the Commission enacted a regulatory management plan designed to reduce the harvest of female crabs by 34%. This reduction in female harvest plan was also implemented by Maryland and the Potomac River Fisheries Commission. The major conservation measures of the 2008 blue crab management plan that remained in effect through the 2009 and 2010 crab fishing seasons included a closure of the winter dredge fishery, a closure of the spawning sanctuaries to harvest a month earlier than in the past (May 1, rather than June 1), a required higher minimum size limit for harvested peeler crabs, and a requirement for larger escape rings in crab pots.

For the second year, the Commission administered the expenditures from the funds provided in 2008 and 2009, by the Department of Commerce, for the declared Fishery Disaster in the Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab Fisheries. The total amount of funding is $14,995,000, and most of the projects are nearing a second year of completion. This Disaster Relief Fund has provided various crab industry members (harvesters, buyers, processors) who experienced financial setbacks from the decade-long (through 2008) condition of very low abundance of the blue crab resource an opportunity to work in resource or habitat enhancement projects. These projects have provided innovative work opportunities to approximately 250 individuals who were associated with the crab fishery or its industry. Progress, to date, in these projects is discussed below. Commission staff also participated directly in certain aquaculture projects, by introducing state-of-the art growing techniques to crab industry members.

As reported last year, the Commission also completed a successful crab pot and peeler pot license buyback using 45 percent ($6.7 million) of the Disaster Relief Fund, and the removal of active and potential effort from fisheries that have experienced years of overcapacity in effort is a positive step towards sustainability of this valued blue crab resource. However, the resource faces a possible influx of effort from 326 former crab licensees who were inactive from 2004 through 2007 and placed on a waiting list, until such time that the interim target of 200 million spawning-age crabs is attained in three consecutive Bay-wide Winter Dredge Surveys. The third consecutive attainment of this interim target could occur in the winter of 2010-11, and the Commission will be challenged in 2011 by how to best address this issue. It is expected that the new analytical stock assessment scheduled to be completed at the end of 2011 will provide management with improved, long-term targets. These new targets may require reductions in effort to achieve a long-term sustainable harvest, rather than allowing the addition of effort to fisheries already in overcapacity.