Are striped bass doomed? Some conservationists are worried.
Proposed moratorium on harvest of stripers from Maine to North Carolina gets mixed reviews on Atlantic waters.
By Jason NarkSpecial To The Washington Post
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The Dawn Marie is rising and falling in the gray swells, one of a hundred boats crowded together in search of striped bass sometimes called America’s fish on the Chesapeake Bay. Captain John Motovidlak, 72, has six fishing customers aboard the vessel, which departed from a dock on Kent Island in Queen Anne’s County, Maryland. They paid $110 apiece to charter the boat, and they expect to catch and keep a cooler full of striped bass by day’s end.
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Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab Population Shows Healthy Female Abundance
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced the results of the 2021 Blue Crab Winter Dredge Survey, a cooperative effort with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, which annually estimates the number of blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay.
The 2021 results showed that the spawning age female abundance increased from 141 million spawning age female crabs in 2020 to 158 million spawning age female crabs. This year’s survey estimate is above the long-term average of 126 million spawning age female crabs.
“Protecting spawning age females is a critical component to maintaining a healthy and sustainable blue crab population,” Maryland Department of Natural Resources Secretary Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio said. “We are pleased to report that the cooperative management efforts of our Chesapeake Bay jurisdictions have continued to conserve female crabs within a healthy range.”
The Chesapeake Bay blue crab population is down 30% this year, a drop to be tied directly to a historically low number of young crabs found in an annual survey.
Chesapeake Bay blue crab survey shows mixed results
From Staff Reports
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The annual survey of blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay showed a mixed bag, with the population of mature female crabs up while juvenile crab numbers declined to the lowest level since the survey began in 1990.
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources announced the results of the 2021 Blue Crab Winter Dredge Survey, a cooperative effort with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, which annually estimates the number of blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay.
The survey results showed that the number of spawning age mature female crabs increased from 141 million in 2020 to 158 million in 2021. This year’s survey estimate is above the long-term average of 126 million spawning age female crabs, DNR said in a release.