Results from the 24th Bay-wide Winter Dredge Survey, conducted December 2012 to March 2013 by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and Maryland Department of Natural Resources, indicate the blue crab stock was not overfished and overfishing did not occur in 2012. The 2012-2013 Winter Dredge Survey estimates of total abundance indicate a 61% decrease in crabs of all sizes compared to the previous year’s survey. This total abundance of 300 million crabs was the sixth lowest estimate from this survey that started in the winter of 1989-1990. The abundance of juvenile crabs (both male and female crabs) that measure less than 2.4 inches in carapace width was the second lowest in 24 years, at 111 million crabs. The number of female crabs that could spawn in 2013 was 147 million and ranks seventh highest, for the 24-year Chesapeake Bay-wide survey.
Year-to-year variation in abundance of juvenile blue crabs is expected because of the effects of environmental influences on the entrainment of crab larvae from the ocean to the Virginia portion of the Chesapeake Bay. Conservation of female spawning age crabs is the primary management objective to ensuring this juvenile variability does not persist. Since 2008 there has been a continuation, by all Chesapeake Bay jurisdictions, of management measures that conserved the spawning-age female crabs, and the results have been an average of 168 million spawning-age female crabs in the last five years, as compared to the 24-year average of 147 million spawning-age female crabs.
At its October 2013 meeting, the Commission established several management measures pertaining to the winter crab dredge fishery season. For the sixth consecutive season, the winter crab dredge fishery season was closed to allow for continued rebuilding of the spawning stock biomass. The continued closure of the winter dredge fishery season was mainly influenced by the low abundance of juvenile crabs, as juvenile crabs enumerated during the Bay-wide winter dredge survey mature and grow into the fisheries for the next 12 months, and that means a winter dredge fishery would be fishing on a low abundance of primarily female crabs. The Commission was also concerned by the low commercial and recreational harvests throughout the Chesapeake Bay. The Commission did endorse a management framework, for a limited winter crab dredge fishery season, and management triggers to determine when a winter dredge season could open in the future. Those triggers are based on a healthy abundance of juveniles and mature crabs. The Commission also adopted bushel limits for the crab pot fishery, as a management tool, for 2014 and future harvest seasons. However, the Commission determined that bushel limits, alone, might not completely offset a potential loss of spawning potential, from an opening of the winter crab dredge fishery season, at this time.
At its October meeting, the Commission also established several other management measures for the commercial crab pot fishery. The 2013 crab pot season was extended an extra 15 days to December 15, 2013, and license category-specific bushel limits were established to compensate for the projected harvest during both the 2013 season extension and 2014 season. The Commission established the 2014 crab pot and peeler pot commercial harvest seasons for 2014 as March 17 through November 30, for both male and female crabs. This allows for 10 additional days, for the harvest of female crabs, at the end of November.
Virginia crab and oyster industries continue to benefit from disaster relief funds provided in 2009 by the Department of Commerce for the declared Fishery Disaster in the Chesapeake Bay blue crab fisheries. This Disaster Relief Fund has provided various crab industry members (harvesters, buyers, and processors) negatively impacted by poor crab stock conditions during many years through 2007 a source of employment. These funds have provided an opportunity to work in resource or habitat enhancement projects. The total amount of funding from the Disaster Relief Fund was $14,995,000. Of the six project areas detailed in previous reports, the oyster aquaculture project continues in 2013. The oyster aquaculture project has stimulated technical advances in hatchery production which is needed for spat-on-shell operations.
