Maryland Marine Notes: September-December 2000 Sidebar

Volume 18, Numbers 5-6 • September-December 2000

Tracking the Blue Crab Baywide

George Abbey, a researcher at the Academy of Natural Sciences, has been tracking fluctuating crab stocks in Maryland for 32 years.

Tracking and monitoring the Chesapeake Bay blue crab presents no small challenge. It takes the wisdom of watermen, the experience of seafood processors, the painstaking work of scientists, and the practical knowledge of resource managers. The late Gene Cronin, a well known and long-time crab biologist, often emphasized how important it was to treat the crab as a Baywide resource.

In particular, two efforts have helped provide the knowledge we need and the synthesis required to make difficult decisions on a Baywide basis.

The Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee (CBSAC). Established in 1985, CBSAC brings together fishery researchers and natural resource managers to collect and analyze data needed for stock assessment. After the 1987 Chesapeake Bay Agreement called for the development of a Baywide stock assessment program, CBSAC took the lead in developing such an effort. CBSAC represents one of the primary funders of stock assessment research and analysis in the Chesapeake Bay, and works closely with technical experts from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, who serve on the committee alongside fisheries scientists. CBSAC focus not only on crabs, but on selected species important to the Bay's commercial and recreational fisheries.

The Bi-State Blue Crab Advisory Committee (BBCAC). Established in 1996 by the Chesapeake Bay Commission, BBCAC was created to help pull together the expertise provided by CBSAC and others, and to combine it with the input of important stakeholders, including elected officials, seafood processors, watermen and conservationists. To guide this effort, BBCAC in turn established a Technical Workgroup, comprised of leading fisheries scientists, resource managers, marine resource economists and policy experts. Unlike CBSAC, this bi-state committee and its workgroup focus exclusively on the blue crab. Also unlike CBSAC, the bi-state crab committee has served essentially as a blue ribbon panel, and will likely cease to exist once it has made and measured the impact of its recommendations.

In addition to state resource agencies and conservation groups, other important partners include the Potomac River Fisheries Commission, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its Chesapeake Bay Program, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, including the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office in Annapolis, which sponsors CBSAC, and the Sea Grant programs of Maryland and Virginia. All of these partners have supported and funded Bay stock assessment work for many years.

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