Factors Affecting The Distribution And Abundance Of The Blue Crab In Chesapeake Bay

That environmental conditions in the Chesapeake Bay are optimal for the blue crab population is suggested by the fact that hard crab landings by Virginia and Maryland watermen accounted for almost 48% of the total of East and Gulf coast landings in 1985. Estimates of total mortality from the egg to the adult stage range from 0.999973 to 0.999996. Commercial fishing removes an additional 0.0000031 to 0.0000251, leaving 0.0000024 to 0.000001 as the rates of removal by other sources. Physical and chemical pollutants, predators, and plants and animals symbiotic with the blue crab are part of the environment that must be acknowledged as actual or potential factors affecting the rates of reproduction, growth and survival, and the behavior and distribution of the blue crab population. The impact of parasites and disease, predation, salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, heavy metals, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, and halogenated substances on the blue crab are described . .https://scholarworks.wm.edu/vimsbooks/1092/thumbnail.jp

The blue crab and its fishery in Chesapeake Bay. Part 1. Reproduction, early development, growth and migration

Blue Crabs are abundant on the East And Gulf Coasts of North America, on the East Coast of South America, and have been reported from France, Holland, and Denmark, and the East Coast of the Mediterranean. In Chesapeake Bay, fishing has been intensive for over 80 Years; in the last 10 years, the average annual production has been about 60 million pounds, valued about three million dollars, approximately two-thirds of the entire United States blue crab harvest

The blue crab and its fishery in Chesapeake Bay Part 2 - Types of gear for hard crab fishing

During the 90-year history of the Chesapeake Bay blue crab fishery, many types of fishing devices were tried, but only pots, trotlines, and dredges proved suitable, and they emerged as the primary types of gear for catchfng hard crabs. In the early years of the fishery, trotlines with their various modifications were used princip~lly for catching hard crabs in the summer. The Chesapeake Bay crab pot, patented in 1938 and modified only slightly since, gradually replaced the trotline. Pots now account for two-thirds of the Virginia hard crab catch and more than half of the Maryland catch, The dredge, first used about 1900 and relatively unchanged with time, is still the primary winter gear

Blue crab shedding plants

Cool weather and two northeast storms, in April and May, are believed by Rappahannock River crab fishermen and shedders to have caused a three to four week delay in crabs reaching the early peeler stages of development. Fishermen are still setting crab pound nets (=peeler traps, fykes). Fishermen recall that prior to 12-15 years ago the first run of peeler crabs occurred on the full moon of late April or early May. Recently the runs have been later, but never as late as this year

Report of the National Blue Crab Industry Workshop: September 10-11, 1977 Charleston, South Carolina

The National Blue Crab Industry Workshop was held on September 10-11, 1977 at the South Carolina Marine Resources Center of the South Carolina Wildlife and Marine Resources Department in Charleston, South Carolina. The workshop was organized to address the blue crab industry\u27s major problem areas and stimulate innovative thinking for improving productivity. The problems faced by the blue crab industry are not necessarily unique compared to other food industries; consequently, methodology to mitigate these problems will probably be transferred from other industries. Much of what was discussed in the technology corrnnittees has been faced by other industries, although recent food processing and discharge regulations seem like an especially heavy load for the small blue crab entrepreneurs. The _Report does bring coherency to describing these problems by blending the opinions and expertise of industry members, researchers and public sector administrators. Interwoven with these problems is the increased strain upon the public sector to squeeze more out of the blue crab resource for different users. Admittedly, the connnonwealth resource nature does superimpose an uniqueness to rectifying some industry problems which hinder economic productivity

Biology and management of the American lobster : June 1974 - December 1978

From June 1974 through October 1976, fourteen cruises were made on connnercial lobster trapping vessels off the mid-Atlantic coast. Catch per effort data were collected from 2308 traps, carapace size frequency distributions were formed and analyzed from measurements of over 3300 lobsters and information on quality was obtained from 5487 lobsters. Total catch per trap-haul (CTH) ranged from 0.64 lobsters in January 1976 to 4.5 lobsters in July 1976. (...more...

Virginia Lobster Fishery

Approximately 100% of lobsters landed in VIrginia are caught 60 to 80 miles off the coast. Prior to 1971 lobsters landed in Virginia were caught offshore by otter trawlers either incidental to finfish catch or by trawlers specifically in search for lobsters. , Several companies and several independent lobstermen have been fishing lobster traps since then. Few lobsters are now landed in Virginia by trawlers

The Blue Crab Fisheries in the Chesapeake Bay Problems and Approaches

Regulations of the blue crab (Calinectes sapidus) fishery in the Chesapeake Bay have been based on empirical reasoning involving biological, economic, political and sociological considerations. These regulations cover licensing, size and sex limits, quotas, seasons, and gear restrictions. They are designed to promote utilization of the resource for near maximum production, a reasonable economic return from adequate catch per unit of effort, and orderly fishing to minimize conflicts between units and types of gear.https://scholarworks.wm.edu/vimsbooks/1153/thumbnail.jp