CCA MD Calls for Recreational, Commercial Crabbers To Reduce Their Take

Annapolis, MD – Recreational and commercial crabbers must reduce their take of blue crabs to support a sustainable crab population in the Chesapeake Bay, according to a position statement adopted by the Coastal Conservation Association Maryland (CCA MD).

“Right now there are simply too many people, too many boats and too many (crab) pots taking too many crabs to have a healthy population of blue crabs in the Chesapeake,” reported Sherm Baynard, chair, CCA MD fisheries committee. “Our blue crab fishery belongs to all Marylanders, and it’s time to think more about the future than this weekend’s crab feast. Without enforceable controls in place, Maryland citizens run the risk of losing this valuable resource.”

Specifically, CCA MD is asking regulators to establish a total allowable catch that will bring the crab season to a close when the quota is reached. This approach is enforceable and can be implemented easily in a way that protects the fall run of female crabs from recreational and commercial crabbers alike. CCA MD will communicate its position to the Department of Natural Resources and state legislators.

“Maryland’s 2007 crab harvest was among the second lowest we’ve seen since 1945, according to the Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee,” Baynard said. “This fact is a warning to all of us to take action. Both recreational and commercial crabbers must share the responsibility of rebuilding and maintaining a healthy crab population.”

The position reads in part, “We support a Blue Crab Fishery Management Plan with a goal that provides for an abundant, healthy, self-sustaining population of blue crabs with a full-age structure distributed over their historic geographic range providing the maximum benefit to the citizens of Maryland.”

To achieve that goal, CCA MD is calling for—

• Equitable constraints on both commercial and recreational fisheries based upon biologically-based targets;

• Regulations that are easily enforced by the Natural Resources Police;

• Corrective action to stop over-fishing within one year;

• Requirements that an over-fished crab population be recovered within five years;

• Elimination of commercial licenses that aren’t being actively used, and

• Efforts to restore essential fish habitat and water quality in Maryland’s waterways.

“Everything needs to be on the table,” cautioned Robert Glenn, CCA MD executive director. ”Half steps aren’t going to get us out of this hole, and everyone will have to feel some pain. We either take our medicine now or we take it later, but that pill is only going to get bigger.”

Click here to read CCA MD's Position Statement on Blue Crab Management.