The following comes from the Associated Press...
Big male crabs fetch the highest prices, but when it comes to ensuring the Chesapeake Bay will continue to produce those No. 1 males, researchers are increasingly paying attention to how many females are harvested.
A new assessment released Tuesday recommends how many female crabs should be in the bay to maintain a sustainable population. Biologists have previously said about 200 million adult crabs were needed to ensure a healthy population. The latest assessment released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recommends fisheries managers work toward reaching a target population of 215 million adult female crabs and a total population of 415 million adult crabs. And when it comes to how many should be taken each year, the current recommendation is 46 percent of the population while the new assessment calls for a 34 percent target for female crabs.
Regulators are trying to refine how to manage a crab population that has seesawed in recent years, approaching nearly a billion in the early 1990s, but dropping to about quarter of that a decade later, and as few as 120 million adults, with overfishing blamed. Restrictions imposed beginning in 2008 included shortening the season and ending a winter dredge season in Virginia to protect hibernating pregnant females. Following those moves, the population rebounded to more than 650 million in 2010 before cold this past winter killed nearly a third of adult crabs. The latest winter dredge survey estimated the population at 461 million with 254 million adults and 207 million juvenile crabs.
The latest assessment found that under the new modeling approach the bay's crabs stocks were not overfished in 2009, but had been from 1998 to 2004. Steps taken in 2008 to cut the female crab harvest by 34 percent likely led to an increase in adult females, boosting the population overall, the report said.
Peyton Robertson, director of the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office and chairman of the Chesapeake Bay Program's Sustainable Fisheries Goal Implementation Team, said that after a long period of decline the blue crab population is beginning to rebound.
“This new assessment will serve as a blueprint for the next stage of the rebuilding effort, moving us closer to a healthy, sustainable population,” Robertson said.
Despite this winter's drop, fisheries officials said the population was still above restoration target levels and that has led to calls for easing the restrictions.