Posted on 10/12/2004 7:30:19 AM PDT by cogitator
Reports mixed on blue crabs
Biologist 'seriously concerned' with the bay's spawning stock; other studies are more hopeful
Chesapeake Bay blue crabs may be in worse trouble than previously imagined, according to Virginia Institute of Marine Science research into the survival rate of female crabs. But the data collected on crabs in the estuary do not all agree.
The institute's study of mature female crabs between November 2001 and October 2002 estimated that only two out of 100 survived the study year.
"This is one of the first times I'm seriously, seriously concerned with the spawning stock," said Rom Lipcius, a VIMS biologist and a principal investigator in the survey.
........
Other surveys in the bay show a more hopeful sign: The overall abundance of blue crabs improved in 2003, according to a Virginia, Maryland and federal panel of scientists that includes representatives from VIMS.
.......
Derek Orner of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's bay office in Annapolis, Md., said the crab study fell to budget constraints and new research priorities in his agency's competitive grants program.
NOAA gave VIMS $396,850 over three years to underwrite the mortality study. The agency is now directing money to other issues. New species have emerged as funding priorities. Chief among them is the menhaden, a valuable industrial fish that is converted to fish meal and oil, and the ariakensis oyster.
Menhaden have gained a new profile amid concerns that they may no longer be abundant enough to serve as the main forage for striped bass and other predator fish in the bay. Interest in the ariakensis oyster, which is native to Asia, has grown as Virginia and Maryland consider it as a possible replacement for the bay's disease-ravaged native oyster.
(go to linked article to read the rest)
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(Excerpt) Read more at timesdispatch.com ...
But I beleive the Blue-Fin has been over harvested throughout the years. Deltaville VA learned. lol
Male crabs can withstand fresher water than females, so you will still find crabs but the amount of crabs the following year can be affected by large influxes of fresh water into the bay. The females will not move up into the far reaches of the bay like the Wye, Chester, Tred Avon, Severn, and Magothy rivers to mate.
http://noaa.chesapeakebay.net/spc/bluecrab.htm
I guess I am only sorta right. Thanks for the link so that I may speak correctly the next time.
You are toooooo much, but correct
"I have the choice of fishing, crabbing and clamming myself, or supporting the local economy by buying from local waterman. My 2 favorite fish markets are owned by fishermen. The one gal even calls me when certain things come in!!! (welll maybe I'm gloating just a little)"
Stop gloating!!!! I live by the Jersey shore and I enjoy surf fishing. As a kid, I used to go clamming in Brooklyn. I still make that trek down the Turnpike for my blue claws.
Some things you can never give up.
LOL!!!!! I like gloating!!!
I never went clamming in Brooklyn, but I remember all the trips to Sheepshead Bay when the fishing boats were coming in and my parents and grandparents buying the fresh catch right off the boats, and we often went fishing with a neighbor in Jamaica Bay.
We love surf fishing and do it fairly often.........but there is definitely a reason it is called "fishing" and not "catching"!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't live on the water, but am close enough to plenty of it.........I could never live where I wasn't close to water. As you say, somethings you can never give up.
I grew up in Sheepshead bay. Use to fish for snapper and porgies off the piers. Late in the summer I would go blue fishing on the Betty W. They would let me fish for free if I helped clean the boat when they came in.
Jamaica Bay had great flounder fishing. Double headers all day.
Think I will take my son this weekend.
I grew up in Flatbush!!!! We had a cabana at Breezy Point for years.
Snapper and porgies - that exactly what we fished for.
I've got to pick up a children's sized life jacket this week so that hubby and a buddy can take our daughter fishing on a boat for the very first time. She's 6 and loves to fish, has all her own gear even.
My oldest is 11. I took her flounder fishing about a year ago. Took the day off from work.
We get on the boat, it is a little chilly and drizzling. We get out to the grounds and my daughter is all upset because she is wet and cold and wants to go home. All these old guys are looking at me like, "either you throw her overboard or we will."
Well my daughter catches a fish. Then another and another. Then she catches one that breaks the rod. Then another.
At the end of the day, she winds up with cash for first fish, high hook and pool winner. The mate doesn't even throw another fish on the scale, my kid has a three pound flounder. Biggest dang flounder I ever saw. Old guys on the boat now have my kid at the front of the boat, giving her soda and cookies and stuff, treating her like their grandkid.
She took her winnings and on the way home we stopped off and she bought a game boy. We stunk like fish in the toy store and were loving every minute of it.
What a great story!!!!!!!!
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