We caught & enjoyed these beauties – all males, check their claws – in May this year.
When I posted the photo above on Facebook last week, one of my friends emphatically asked: “5″ point to point and no females right?!?!”
It makes me happy when recreational crabbers in Maryland self-regulate. Her comment also shows that people care.
In his month’s issue of PropTalk in an article titled “Bay Crab Numbers Take a Dive” (p. 10) we learned that the 2013 Chesapeake Bay Winter Dredge Survey recently released by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) showed the number of spawning-age females increased by 52% to 147 million, more than twice the “healthy abundance” threshold of 70 milion. Good news. But the WDS also showed an overall decline in the Bay-wide population, from 765 million to 300 million, with the number of juvenile crabs dropping from 581 million to 111 million. Quite a drop.
The PropTalk article points to crab cannibalism, an unusually high number of red drum (fish) in the Bay last year, declines in Bay grasses, and “weather conditions” (Hurricane Sandy?) as reasons for the drop. So, the article concludes, Maryland officials are expected to work with the crabbing industry to reduce bushel limits by about 10 percent for female crabs this year.
I couldn’t find the entire print article online, but here’s the closest thing: http://proptalk.com/dnr-lowers-catch-limits-for-female-blue-crabs/#.UZ-NlaLIGzk.
An email we received from DNR on September 28, 2012 immediately came to mind:
Subject: “Reminder To Commercial Crabbers”
As a reminder, there are no closure periods for female harvest in 2012. A publc [sic] notice announcing harvest limits was posted by the department on May 22 and reads as follows:
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Service (MDNR) announces the commercial mature female hard crab bushel limits and closure periods for 2012 for the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries pursuant to COMAR 08.02.03.14. Notwithstanding COMAR 08.02.03.11A(5), there are no closure periods for female harvest in 2012.
I read this as not only – “keep dredging for females this Fall,” but “we (DNR) are going out of our way to remind you, Commercial Crabber, that you can keep dredging for females this Fall.”
Crabbing regulations for recreational crabbers, on the other hand, are quite different. As my Facebook friend so rightly pointed out, no female hard crabs may be taken at any time, for any reason, by recreational crabbers.On Wednesdays we cannot use traps, rings or trotlines. There are bushel limits and 5″ is the minimum size that may be taken. (For the full regulations see http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/regulations/table.asp?c=recreational).
We were a little confused by these changing messages to Commercial Crabbers from DNR. After this many years regulating crab harvests, you would think DNR would take margin for error into account when it comes to what can be taken out of the Bay by Commercial Crabbers. And seriously? They are now in the business of sending out little reminder messages to Commercial Crabbers that they can keep dredging for females? (Reminder: they are doing this using our tax dollars.)
To us, it seems odd that anyone can go down to the Maine Avenue Fish Market (a.k.a. the Southwest DC waterfront) and buy female crabs – but a recreational crabber in Maryland can’t take any. Not that we would want to. We throw back all females, and anything less than 5″ – often many very large crabs when we’ve had an especially good day. Hey, we get lazy! Sometimes a 6″ crab seems too small to sit and pick when the 7″ers are plentiful!
We always stay well within our bushel limits. We don’t crab for females, and I personally won’t eat them anywhere they are on the menu because I care about the crab population too much. My kids are Marylanders. ‘Nuff said?
My kids – 1 & 3 – are already learning about size minimums and why it’s important to throw back any females.
Recreational crabbing in Maryland is dear to my heart. It’s a tradition for so many families here. Crabbing and eating crabs is a great summer past time. But as I see it, right now the only person doing their part – and continually asked do their part – is the recreational crabber. So hey, Maryland: why can’t we all work together to protect something we agree is important and valuable, something that we can all benefit from?
I welcome your thoughts & opinions on this issue.
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