Problems with Blue Crab Lack of Management

Today an article appeared in The Capital, the official fish wrap of Annapolis, on the state of the blue crab fishery and a 2 year history of mis-management. This article points to the complete lack of governance and understanding by elected governement leaders in managing natural resources.

Quoting Pamela Wood 'And even as Maryland and Virginia look at the crabbing situation on a year-by-year basis, thay also are looking long term. Officials are taking early steps toward possibly setting a quota on catching crabs, setting limits on how many pots or trotlines waterman can use or even buying back licenses from crabbers.' It sounds like the officials in charge have just recently realized there is a problem in the blue crab population. In 1991, I wrote my junior thesis on the problems of harvesting female crabs, the winter dredge crab fishery and 'ghost crab pots'.

So in 2008, what did the esteemed democratic governors of Maryland and Virginia agree to: June 2008 -> recreational restrictions on harvesting female crabs
August 2008 -> catch restrictions on commercial harvest of female crabs
October 2008 -> early season ending for female crab harvesting
Spring 2009 -> The state of Maryland is receiving $10 million in disaster relief from the federal government to alleviate problems with the commercial crab fishery. Part of this money will be used to pay commercial crabbers to retrieve 'ghost crab pots' from the Chesapeake Bay.

Amazing, a 19 year old, 17 years ago, figured out a strategy to help protect a major commercial fishery from self-induced collapse. How many jobs and small businesses have been lost while the states have delayed action to 'protect the waterman's way of life'. Soft stepping around commercial fishing lobbying groups has resulted in a collapsing ecosystem. Leadership is doing the right thing, even when it is not popular among corporate donors. Maryland and Virgina once supported vibrant commercial fisheries and canneries throughout the Chesapeake. With modern catches, most packing houses have closed or have resorted to importing crabs form other regions or other countries to fill in for the product no longer coming from the Chesapeake Bay.

While the crab fishery has slowly been in decline, all efforts have been on restoring a robust striped bass, 'Rockfish', fishery. Striped bass's primary forage in the Chesapeake Bay is menhaden, However, the menhaden fishery has been decimated by overfishing resulting in striped bass foraging on other species, especially blue crabs adding further pressure on a declining species. The impacts of the blue crab collapse on striped bass include low weights and increased disease mortality. The striped bass fishery supports a good commercial fishery in Maryland, 2 million plus pounds a year, and a fantastic recreational fishery, over 3 million pounds per year.

Recreational fisherman spend money and lots of it. They buy or charter boats, they pay for fuel, gear, bait, booze, food, trucks, etc. This is a huge industry as was the commercial industry. It is a self-replicating source of income for both the commercial waterman and the thousands who rely on jobs linked to the recreational fishing industry. Don't let the government screw it up any more than it is already. There can not be a targeted one species approach to managing a complex fishery. A concerted effort to manage the entire system is needed to avoid tipping the balance towards population over shoot in one species and population collapse in another. There should be an effort towards equilibrium of the system.

Solutions are quite simple. Target limiting harvest in areas with the most impact. Female crabs release hundreds of thousands of eggs every year of their adult lives. Limit female harvest by total catch or size. Restore and protect juvenile crab habitat. Market Chesapeake seafood as a premium product demanding extra money, much like Alaskan Salmon. Try to buy Yukon river salmon, when in season, without a home equity loan. By increasing the landed price to the commercial fleet, the fisherman can reduce their effort to return a profit, thus reducing pressure on the resource and guaranteeing themselves a bright future.

These fisheries problems are not entirely the waterman's fault. The deteriorating conditions of the upland watersheds feeding the Chesapeake have been detrimental to the productivity of the Chesapeake Bay. Over-building along waterfronts and destruction of riparian buffers has been extraordinarily harmful downstream. Instead of buying 200 million in contraceptives and Pelosi a new 737, maybe the federal government could "stimul-ain't" the economy by real infrastructure improvements, such as, the inter-county connector in Maryland, A heavy rail purple line from Bethesda through New Carrollton and continue by running it above ground along the route 50 corridor to Annapolis. Getting cars to run fewer miles will result in less oil from leaky cars and less heavy metals, like cadmium, from brake dust ending up in the Chesapeake becuase of street run-off.