Chesapeake Bay Crabs

Part I: Crabs

Basic Crab Information

Welcome to the beautiful Chesapeake Bay, the Land of Pleasant Living, and its prized catch, the blue crab (Callinectes sapidus, meaning savory beautiful swimmer), a crustacean (along with lobsters and shrimp). One could say the Bay area is crab-u-lous.

The Bay is the largest estuary in the United States (there are 840 other estuaries in the country), measuring about two hundred miles north to south and between almost three miles wide at its northern end to thirty miles wide where the Potomac River feeds into the Bay on its way to meet the Atlantic Ocean. It drains 150 rivers and streams from Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C., creating a basin of more than 64,000 square miles. The largest rivers flowing into the Bay are the Susquehanna, Patapsco, Chester, Choptank, Patuxent, Nanticoke, Potomac, and Pocomoke feeding in from Maryland and the Rappahannock, York, and James rivers feeding in from Virginia.

The bay yields more fish and shellfish (about 45,000 short tons) than any other estuary in the United States.

Early Maryland settlers lived within close proximity of the Bay, more as a transportation route than because of the food source contained within its waters. The settlers worked the land as their primary nourishment supply. It was plentiful, inexpensive, and nutrient-rich. Anyone fishing in the Bay’s waters was as likely to be doing so for a recreational as for commercial purpose. The equipment available for catching fish was pretty much limited to hook and line and raking the shore for oysters.

With a rapidly increasing population, hurricanes, weather changes, and various wars and skirmishes, fishing (and crabbing) was not looked upon as a reliable food supply or a steady income. On the other hand, with the development of rail shipping and refrigerated transportation, the ability to move Bay products beyond its shorelines started increasing. The availability of canning equipment beginning in the late 1870s also increased the ability to transport crabmeat to places beyond the local communities.

Virginia’s watermen have been catching blue crabs and eighty-six other varieties of seafood since the first settlement in Jamestown. Today, the state is the nation’s fourth largest seafood producer and the largest on the East Coast.

Capt. John Smith (1580-1631) is credited as being the first European to explore the Bay, in 1607 and 1608, during his voyages through the waterway seeking a Northwest Passage to the western states. Fortunately, he made meticulous notes and his maps of the Bay, published in 1612, served as the most important point of information for Bay settlers. They have also been instrumental historically for those who are working to restore the Bay to a more viable condition.

The Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail, tracing 3,000 miles of historic voyages by Smith, is the first national water trail in the country. Through the trail, you can learn about the importance of and dangers to the Bay, the maritime history, the English settlement of this part of the country, and the traditions of the Native Americans who lived here.

Friends of the John Smith Chesapeake Trail, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Sultana Projects, Inc., National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, Verizon Wireless, National Geographic Society, and the Conservation Fund have been working together on this trail project.

Sultana’s John Smith 400 Project built a replica of Smith’s twentyeight-foot shallop (a type of boat) that was crewed by twelve modern explorers, naturalists, educators, and historians who duplicated Smith’s travels on 1,500 miles of water under sail and oar power in the summer of 2007. The 121-day trip stopped at more than twenty ports along the way, taking the voyage to the public.

Even without a boat, you can follow his travels through the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Water Trail. The Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System (CBIBS) allows you to explore his voyages vicariously through the Internet. Each buoy marked on the map has an audio presentation about the history, geography, and a seasonal report. The buoys are located at Susquehanna, Patapsco, Annapolis (Severn River), upper and lower Potomac River, Gooses Reef, Stingray Point, James River at Jamestown, and Elizabeth River at Norfolk.

In 1917 Maryland implemented its first measures against the harvest of sponge crabs and Virginia followed suit in the next decade. Virginia lifted the ban in 1932, and while the market lessened during the Great Depression and Prohibition, the development of the crab pot in the mid-1930s started it back upwards again. Although the demand for crabmeat lessened during World War II, it was not a rationed food so it was fairly readily available. The industry benefited in postwar days because of the new products and equipment developed during the war.

Blue crabs are vital to the Bay because they provide a food source for humans and other Bay inhabitants (other crabs, striped bass, catfish, and other species dine on crabs—particularly soft-shelled and juveniles), employment (catching them; cooking, picking, packing, and shipping crabmeat; preparing crab for consumption, etc.), and are a predator that feeds on bivalves, fish, plants, and other organisms that filter down to the bottom of the Bay where they live.

Although the blue crab of the Chesapeake has a limited season (April 1 through December 15), it’s estimated that the Bay provides one-third of the crabs consumed in this country. Other blue crabs and similar relatives come from the Gulf of Mexico and Asian waters. The crab is among an estimated three hundred species of fish and shellfish, with the striped bass (rockfish) being the state fish. It had been fished nearly to extinction until a moratorium was enacted so the population could increase. The catch is still strictly limited and fishermen are regularly charged with violating the number, size, and weight limits. Commercially caught and sold striped bass must be checked in to verify where and how each fish was caught and must have colored tags indicating where they were caught.

Starting in 2008, Maryland and Virginia joined forces to impose strict limits on the number of female crabs that could be caught. The aim of the program is to increase the crab population so that the life and business of the commercial crabbers could continue to be worthwhile and profitable, and to assure the availability of crabs for leisure crabbers and diners around the Bay and the world. They also prohibited the issuance of new commercial licenses.

Egg-bearing females (sooks or spongys) that have mated with Jimmies during the summer start migrating to the warmer waters of the southern Bay in mid-September. Although the outcome has been spectacular and one might think it beneficial to maintain the ban for at least another year or two, the crabbers keep asking to be allowed a larger catch.

The results, says the Chesapeake Bay Program, indicate a 70 percent increase in adult crabs, the first major jump since 1993; however, the number of juveniles is still below the desired numbers to sustain this industry.

According to Virginia governor Bob McDonnell and Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, the blue crab population has increased the last two years because of this stock-rebuilding program. The 2010 survey estimated the population had increased by 60 percent, to 658 million crabs (give or take a dozen or two), the largest number since 1997.

This in no way indicates the Bay is as healthy as it should or could be, but it is a sign of improvement. Fertilizers and other chemicals used in farming are a major source of pollution. Run-off from acres and acres of parking lots, highways and streets, commercial properties, and housing developments is another major source.

One slightly unusual cause of pollution is referred to as derelict crab traps. These are traps that have come loose from crab lines laid by commercial crabbers. They are considered an eye sore, a navigational hazard, and a danger to other species that become caught accidentally in the traps. They are considered derelict or ghost traps, and they keep company with fishing gear, beverage bottles and cans, items that fall off boats and piers, and other marine debris that manage to break away from where it belongs. No one is saying crabbers deliberately drop the traps, for they cost about $20.00 to $30.00 each. Quite often it’s pleasure boats that sail or motor by that sever the lines and cause the traps to sink.

The concern is about any manmade solid material that is— directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally—disposed of or abandoned into the marine environment. It may end up in the water or on the shoreline from people on boats or along the shoreline, or can be washed out to sea via rivers, streams, and storm drains. Because marine debris can hurt the ecosystem, NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration) is researching what those impacts are—and how to mitigate those negative effects.

The NOAA Chesapeake Bay office studied the effects of this gear on the habitat to determine the safety, nuisance, environmental, and economic impacts in coastal waters, noting that the Bay’s crab fishery—the nation’s largest—uses metal traps as the primary method of harvest.

An estimated 300,000 crab traps are deployed each summer day and from that number commercial fishermen may lose from 20 to 30 percent of their traps for a variety of reasons. Although each trap is attached to a marker buoy that identifies its owner and helps with retrieval, the traps become detached when a vessel’s propeller cuts a line or wave action and current otherwise sever it. The traps can’t be located or retrieved and any catch can’t be harvested. These traps may trap, wound, and eventually kill crabs, fish, birds, reptiles, and aquatic mammals; degrading marine ecosystems and sensitive habitats . . . and forming hazards to recreational, commercial, and military navigation.

The ghost traps, although empty of set bait, can attract crabs, fish, and terrapins, which then cannot escape; they die and become bait that attracts other sea life and the cycle continues. Recreational fishers are also concerned because this cycle has an impact on their catch. One estimate noted that each pot or trap could attract about four dozen crabs or nearly a bushel, and when that’s multiplied times 17,000 or more traps, a lot of the potential crab catch is lost.

The NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Virginia Marine Resources Commission, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, and the NOAA Marine Debris Program surveyed the Bay from late February through late March 2007 (harvesting was closed to commercial fishery, which assured that any traps located were derelict).

These studies indicated about 85,000 crab traps were on the bottom of the Maryland portion of the Bay and another 35,000 in the Virginia portion of the Bay and its tributaries. One option for future elimination or prevention of this problem is to include biodegradable components into crab trap design and construction.

To help eliminate or correct the problem, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science employed watermen who would have worked in the 2008-09 winter dredge season (which was closed by the Virginia Marine Resources Commission) to instead retrieve derelict traps in a structured and environmentally sensitive manner. During the two-year program, watermen found 8,800 crab and eel pots the first year and about as many the second year. Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources conducted a similar program from February 22 to April 1, 2010.

In a short time, using grappling hooks dragged across the bottom of the Bay and the West and Rhode rivers off Maryland’s Anne Arundel County coast and other rivers, more than 9,000 crab pots, eel pots, nets, and other debris were collected. It’s not a lot, but it’s a start. The watermen who trawled for these traps were required to log where each pot was recovered, note what condition it was in, and whether there was any fish or crabs in the trap.

These derelict traps are not a Chesapeake Bay exclusive. A removal program in Mississippi in 2010 caught 347 traps, which were recycled.

Although Maryland surrounds most of the Bay, Virginia plays an important part in its health. According to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, the state’s seafood industry is one of the oldest industries in the United States and one of the Commonwealth’s largest, with an annual economic impact of more than $500 million. Blue crabs represent the second largest economic value, after sea scallops and before striped bass, summer flounder, croaker, spot, and clams.

The Virginia Marine Products Board reports that the United States Department of Commerce says, Americans consume 16.5 pounds of fish and shellfish per person, with crabs and clams among the ‘top ten’ most popular seafood items.

About two dozen species of crabs are edible. Although in the U.S., we focus on just a few. The Chesapeake Bay blue crab is the most popular in this area. Stone crabs also are found in the Atlantic Ocean; however, the best-known fishing areas are the Florida Keys and Gulf Coast waters. One claw (sometimes both) is removed and the crab is thrown back in the water to regenerate a new claw, which takes about eighteen months. This is a sustainable way of harvesting claws. Claws can be harvested multiple times from the same crab without killing the crab. Their season is from October 15 through May 15, and if you have them any other time, they’re probably coming from Chile.

The waters off Alaska’s shores produce seven crab species that are caught commercially. They are the red crab, blue king crab, golden king crab, Tanner crab, snow crab, hair crab, and Dungeness crab. Additionally scarlet king crab, grooved Tanner crab, and Triangle Tanner crab inhabit the waters. They are caught between October and January, with restrictions on the number of days each crabber can bring in a catch. The crabs are frozen while at sea and then shipped around the world for year-round consumption.

You can see some of the trials and tribulations involved in harvesting these crabs in the TV series Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel. Just as with the blue crab, Alaska’s crab stock has been depleted over the years. Unlike these boats that are at sea for weeks or months at a time, almost all of the catch from the Bay is caught on day boats that go out early in the morning and return when they’ve reached their limit and run out of hours.

One other crab you’ll hear mentioned along the Eastern Shore and the East Coast is the horseshoe crab. Although it looks similar to crustaceans, it belongs to the Chelicerata family and therefore is more closely related to spiders and scorpions of the arthropod family. These crabs live primarily in shallow