A limit to the number of female crabs commercial crabbers can harvest in the early fall and an early closure to the crabbing season will help restore the dangerously low population levels, state regulators said Monday.
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources proposed emergency regulations aimed at reducing the female blue crab harvest by 34 percent.
“We are moving forward with a package that is predictable, reliable and enforceable,” said Frank Dawson, DNR?s assistant secretary for aquatic resources.
Under the proposed regulations, bushel limits would be enforced from Sept. 1 to Oct. 22, and the crabbing season would close Oct. 23.
The limits vary and are based on the average number of bushels licensed crabbers caught between 2004 to 2007. For example, crabbers who typically caught more than 40 bushels in October would be limited to 50.
“These limits represent a substantive reduction,” said Lynn Fegley, a DNR fisheries biologist.
The regulations also prohibit recreational crabbing of female crabs.
Regulators had considered bushel limits throughout the season and size limits.
The proposal comes on the heels of the winter dredge survey, which found the crab population had dipped to 125 million, far short of the 200 million considered healthy.
If approved by the General Assembly?s Joint Committee on Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review, the emergency regulations could take effect
May 8.
In case the plan is rejected, state regulators proposed a backup plan that includes closing the season Oct. 1.
Emergency regulations are rare, because watermen plan well ahead for the season and rely on the predictability of the regulations, said Tom Miller, a professor of fisheries science at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science?s Chesapeake Biological Laboratory in Solomons.
Crabbers have taken issue with strict restrictions, saying they will put many out of business.
Enforcing limits during September and October, when most of the catch occurs, and not pushing limits during other months is the best way to maximize the impact of the restrictions but ease the sting on watermen, Miller said.
“It is the most direct way to ensure compliance in the time frame they have,” he said.
