The crabs that Virginia Institute of Marine Science and Maryland Department of Natural Resources crews count are taken from 750 sites in each state’s waters. The Chesapeake Bay Program’s Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee is reviewing the survey results as it prepares its recommendations to regulators who oversee fisheries in the bay and Potomac River. “This year’s results indicate that the blue crab fisheries management changes adopted in 2008, which continue to guide decisions, have again resulted in a more abundant and stable trend for the bay’s blue crab population,” Moore said. Maryland and Virginia won federal disaster aid totaling $30 million for efforts to restore crab populations, including a stepped up effort to find and remove derelict crab pots, which were trapping a large number of crabs. Virginia also moved aggressively to reduce pollutants running off from farms and from cities’ and suburbs’ storm drains. Those included closure of the 2008/2009 winter crab dredge season, restrictions on taking female crabs in the spring and an earlier closing of sanctuary areas.

Overall, crab numbers from the winter survey were the seventh highest since population totals crashed in the late 1990s.īut the survey “also tells us we need to continue with our precautionary, science-based management approach to ensure we do not see further decreases,” Bowman said.īlue crab numbers can bounce widely from year to year, and while they are down from the 2019 survey, they’re still well above the worrisome levels of the 1990s and 2000s, Chesapeake Bay Foundation senior scientist Chris Moore said.įemale population numbers fell below the minimum safe number in 1999, 20 but rose dramatically in response to new management regulations in 2008.

Maryland crab dredge report 2022