COMMENTARY, by Gerald Winegrad   

In 1989, the Chesapeake blue crab (Callinectes sapidus Rathbun) was designated by law as the Maryland State Crustacean. The biological name honors Mary Jane Rathbun, the Smithsonian scientist who described this species in 1896. Unfortunately, Maryland and Virginia have dishonored the namesake and the species by allowing the population to crash to record low levels.

The evidence of this failure is crystal clear: crab numbers declined to 227 million this winter — the lowest in the 33 years of the definitive winter dredge survey conducted at 1,500 sites. This record low comes after crab numbers dropped by 32% in 2020 and another 30% in 2021. We are now at less than one-third of the population of 30 years ago.

Maryland and Virginia had committed under the formal Bay Program to reach and maintain a target of 196 million spawning-age female crabs. But the number of females that will spawn this spring and summer fell from 158 million crabs in 2021 to 97 million, less than half of the agreed upon target.

While protecting female crabs from overharvest is appropriate, Smithsonian researchers in Edgewater documented nearly a decade ago the critical importance of a sufficient number of large males for the reproductive success of the species. As regulators allow an excessive removal of large males with no daily limits, this leaves smaller, less virile males in the mating pool. Less juveniles result, with serious detrimental effects on crab populations.

Regulators continue to allow this overharvesting of large males with no daily limits. This has led to a major decline to 28 million adult male crabs, the lowest level on record.

All of these declines are driven primarily by a third consecutive year of below average recruitment of juvenile crabs, a serious downward spiral for these delectable crustaceans. The simple truth regulators are avoiding is that way too many crabs are being harvested.

Male blue crabs show-off their remarkable azure blue claws. Their Latin name translates to beautiful swimmers that are delectable—and they are both. (Carol Swan)

Of course, there are factors other than harvest that affect crab populations. One of the most important is abundance of bay grasses or SAV (submerged aquatic vegetation). SAV serves as what scientists call “crab nurseries,” where juveniles hide from predators. SAV hosts smaller critters that serve as crab food. Biologists have found from 5 to 30 times more juvenile crabs in SAV beds than in adjacent unvegetated bay bottom. SAV is important for all crabs, especially shedding ones, protecting them from predation, and also as food gardens and oxygen sources especially in anoxic conditions.

Bay grasses declined by more than one-third from 2018 to 2020 dropping to 62,169 acres in 2020, below the level of 30 years ago. This is another indication of how badly the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay is going. The bay state governors and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had solemnly pledged in the 2000 Bay Agreement to restore SAV coverage to 185,000 acres by 2010. But, 22 years later, only one-third of that goal has been achieved.

Other threats to blue crabs include pollutants, dead zones of low oxygen, climate change, and introduced species such as blue catfish. Until we can restore the bay and its SAV, reduce pollutants and dead zones, and deal with other threats we have only one management tool: stop the overharvest.

The radical decline in Callinectes sapidus, translated to beautiful savory swimmers, has been occurring for years. And for the last seven years, we have heard state Department of Natural Resources secretaries and some regulators declare how well they are maintaining the harvest of blue crabs at safe levels and meeting management objectives. The secretary advised the public this month that blue crab reproduction is naturally variable and how other factors influence recruitment success. Many times, a frigid winter is to blame, but this winter was mild, so no excuse there.

Worst of all, the secretary hides behind such pronouncements and refuses to act to restrict the killing of millions of crabs. Instead, she opts to tell the public how there will be meetings to discuss what to do, including with the crabbers who she allows to dictate crabbing policies.

Last year when I wrote a column advocating greater harvest restrictions, the DNR secretary sent a letter to the Capital filled with the same fluff as cited above. The sad truth is that as with oysters, this secretary, and the governor who appointed her, allow commercial harvesters to dictate management decisions, avoiding proper science-based management.

DNR has been without a director of fisheries for more than three years, since a professional fishery biologist quit or was run off. Unqualified political appointees run roughshod over dedicated fishery biologists. The most egregious case involved the wrongful 2017 firing of Brenda Davis, a professional fishery biologist of 28 years at DNR.

Her offense — daring to stand up to a group of commercial crabbers who were trying to convince her to ease limits on crab harvest. After the crabbers met with Gov. Larry Hogan to complain, Davis was fired. This unwarranted dismissal of a professional for doing her job led to legislative hearings. DNR officials refused to reveal the basis for the firing. There was embarrassingly widespread coverage in all regional press outlets with the Washington Post headlining: “Maryland Official Fired After Watermen Meet With Governor.”

This outrageous action came after Gov. Hogan criticized some DNR restrictions on commercial harvests, which he called a “war on watermen.” This affected the morale of fishery biologists and still may function as a deterrent for proper fishery management.

In the 1980s as oyster populations crashed, watermen extended crabbing efforts much later into the fall. A decade later, the crab population was reduced by half to around 300 million, and as the crab harvest escalated with prices skyrocketing to record highs, the population further declined to 227 million.

A retail crab seller on Forest Drive lists a bushel of large crabs at $450 or about $6.50 a crab. You can buy the smallest crabs at $75 per dozen or $90 for large. Maryland backfin crab meat is $45 a pound.

Katelyn Dermody, the author’s granddaughter, holds a female crab she will release that was taken from a crab pot at the end of the pier where Gerald and his grandson Ronan check for other crabs. (Carol Swan)

I cherish crabbing off our pier and enjoy feasting on our deck with great gastronomical gusto. Family crab feasts are central to our summers. Crabbing is in my blood as my paternal ancestors go back many generations as Eastern Shore watermen by the name of William Messick. It makes no sense to me why a recreational crabber cannot keep one female (I never would) and can keep only two dozen male crabs daily (which I can never catch) from two crab pots, while some commercial crabbers can take up to 30 bushels of females, use 900 pots from one boat, and keep unlimited numbers of male crabs.

Collapsing crab numbers sadden me and not just because soft crabs are my No. 1 favorite food with crab cakes second. It is a real tragedy of the commons. The time has come for DNR to restrict commercial harvest by adopting strict daily bushel limits for males and greatly decreasing the bushel limits for females, reducing the number of crab pots used, shortening the crabbing season, closing crabbing two days each week, and adopting a quota system for each commercial crabber as with rockfish.

Gerald Winegrad represented the greater Annapolis area in the General Assembly for 16 years. Contact him at gwwabc@comcast.net.