Overcoming centuries of skepticism, researchers in Baltimore have proven you can raise Maryland blue crabs in captivity ? quickly.
At the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute in Baltimore, Yonathan Zohar and a team of dedicated biologists have released more than 300,000 of the half-dollar-sized, tagged crustaceans into the Chesapeake Bay in efforts to better understand their life cycle.
“We all know the blue crab population in the Chesapeake Bay is in a crisis situation,” said Zohar, who will be honored Thursday by Annapolis lawmakers for winning the prestigious Chinese Academy of Science Albert Einstein Visiting Professorship award last year as well as for his continuing work. “The real problem with the blue crab in the Bay is that the spawning stock has declined 80 percent to 85 percent in the last 10 years.”
Zohar?s team is not releasing crabs to replenish fishing stock, as is the Japanese practice. His team is discovering the basic biology of the blue crab ? not to mention how little is known of Maryland?s 5.9 million-pounds-a-year commodity.
“Most watermen assumed it took two years to reach breeding size,” he said. “We found it took five months from hatching to a sexually mature animal.”
One of the problems with raising crabs is the larvae will not eat processed food. They develop through more than nine stages and require three different kinds of live fodder before they reach release age.
They are experimenting with release points in various upper-Bay tributaries and monitoring how far their babies get toward the protected breeding grounds at the mouth of the Bay.
A second hatchery has been started at Piney Point in St. Mary?s County, and Zohar is working with the Smithsonian, as well as biologists from Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina.
“If we?re going to end up recommending the industry do anything, it will have to be based on very sound science,” Zohar said.
So far, they have gotten encouraging support from the Maryland Watermen?s Association and Phillips Seafood. Watermen get a reward for reporting tagged crabs, and Phillips contributed funding to the hatchery research.
“Our main reason for wanting a hatchery is so we can better understand the life of the crabs, so we can better manage them,” association President Larry Simms said. So far most regulations on crabbing in the Chesapeake have been based on annual harvests and blind guesswork, he said.
The next step ? to ensure released crabs contribute to the breeding stock ? is to DNA test second-generation crabs for maternity, Zohar said.
