Betting on a comeback

Proposed limits on crab harvest spawn debate

By Rona Kobell | Sun reporter

April 20, 2008

The Chesapeake's iconic crustacean -- the blue crab -- is in big trouble, with pollution and development contributing to the lowest baywide crab harvests in decades. (Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum / January 28, 2008)

The great protein factory that was the Chesapeake Bay is sputtering. The shad, once abundant enough to feed George Washington's army, are struggling to survive. Oysters are at historic lows. There are hardly any sturgeon left. Eels and clams have dwindled.

Could the blue crab be next?

The Chesapeake's iconic crustacean is in big trouble, with pollution and development contributing to the lowest baywide crab harvests in decades. But some scientists say crabs don't have to go the way of almost every other once-productive species in the bay.

They say the lot of the blue crab could be turned around in a few years - even within a political term.

"The blue crab presents a grand opportunity for restoration and recovery," said Ann Swanson, director of the multistate Chesapeake Bay Commission. "If you take action this year, you can see results by next year."

After a winter count of hibernating crabs found that the population remains alarmingly low, Maryland and Virginia said last week that they will impose rules to cut by a third the harvest of female crabs.

Several leading scientists say a reduction of that magnitude should yield significant results in reviving the species - if the states issue regulations that are effective.

But there is concern among scientists that the states may not be looking at the right rules.

"The Maryland approach I don't think is very effective at all, to be honest," said Anson "Tuck" Hines, director of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater.

He and others worry that while the state will reduce the harvesting of crabs in certain parts of the bay, watermen will be free to simply step up their crabbing elsewhere. But scientists say the one-third reduction can be achieved if the states commit to it.

The reason for optimism about the species' revival is that female blue crabs are extremely fertile. And they mature within a year. Female rockfish, in contrast, take several years to mature. Sturgeon, which live for decades, can take up to 20 years to mature.

Unlike oysters, which are being ravaged by two deadly parasites, crabs are not dying from disease.

To bring back the crab, Maryland is considering bushel limits, a ban on catching soft crabs during part of the season, and a shorter season for catching females.

Virginia has already extended for six more weeks a ban on crabbing in its protected areas, called sanctuaries. It is also considering ending its winter dredge fishery, during which watermen harvest female crabs hibernating in the mud.

Both states plan to announce the specifics of new rules later this month.

While scientists believe that a one-third reduction is the right target for restoring the population, several said that establishing a sanctuary in Maryland would be a more certain way of attaining the goal.

In 2001, Maryland instituted restrictions on crabbing, including a shorter workweek for watermen, in hopes of boosting the population when the winter survey showed the crab nearing collapse. But the rules did not deliver the hoped-for rebound.

Hines and others say that was because Maryland focused on reducing crabbing, not on rebuilding the crab population. Crabbers were able to work harder on the days they were allowed to crab, and the harvest was not cut as much as officials had hoped.

Protect migration

What the state needs to do instead, some scientists say, is protect females as they migrate down the bay to spawn in Virginia waters. The best way to do that, they say, is by establishing a sanctuary that would close parts of the bay to crabbing during the weeks when females are on the move.