The annual Blue Crab Advisory Report, released by the Chesapeake Bay Program and developed by the Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee, finds that the overall Chesapeake Bay blue crab population, while declining from 2019 to 2020, “is not being overfished and is not depleted.”
While the estimated population of blue crabs in the Bay declined from 594 million in 2019 to 405 million in 2020, that’s within the normal year-to-year variation, according to the annual report, which was released recently.
Also from the report:
• The estimated population of 141 million female blue crabs in 2020 was a decrease from 191 million in 2019 and well below the target of 215 million, but remains twice what is considered the minimum acceptable number of female crabs in order to ensure future population growth.
• In the 2019 season, 17 percent of all female crabs were harvested, safely below both the target (25.5 percent) and threshold (34 percent) levels for the 12th consecutive year.
• The relatively warm 2019-20 winter meant that 0.4 percent of crabs died between fall and spring, just one-tenth the average rate and the lowest overwintering mortality since 1996.
The full report can be found at https://bit.ly/3dVV7SA.
The Link LonkJuly 09, 2020 at 10:30PM
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Report: Chesapeake Bay crab population down, but not depleted - Inside NoVA
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