Next year’s blue crab stock assessment expected to inform management options, help better understand low juvenile recruitment The Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab Winter Dredge Survey, a cooperative effort between the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, estimates 238 million blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay in 2025, a decrease Read the Rest…
Benchmark stock assessment completed this year estimates more than 12 billion oysters are in Maryland’s waters of the Chesapeake Bay The population of Maryland’s oysters has grown significantly in the past 20 years, according to the results of the latest benchmark stock assessment for the species. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the University Read the Rest…
Lessons learned from past management give hope for new stock assessment In the late 2000s, the outlook for blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay was grim. Known for its ups and downs, the blue crab harvest was going through a long stretch of almost all downs. The crab population steeply declined after 1997 and remained Read the Rest…
The Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab Winter Dredge Survey, a cooperative effort between the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), estimates 317 million blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay in 2024, compared to 323 million crabs last year. The number of spawning age female crabs decreased from 152 million Read the Rest…
Multi-year analysis to look at questions around juvenile recruitment, environmental factors A team of researchers is preparing for a large-scale analysis of the blue crab population in the Chesapeake Bay that will help guide future management of the crab fishery and investigate factors that influence the animal’s survival and reproduction. The stock assessment comes as Read the Rest…
