BLUE CRAB POPULATION IMPROVES

Jimmie is back….. and coming on strong!

 

The quantity of blue crabs breeding in the bay doubles.

Nature or the actual restrictions on blue crab harvests

helped the number of breeding blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay

this year, as compared to last year.  The breeding population increase is

40% higher than the average population of the past three years, and was greater than it was in five of the past nine years, when the greatest

slump was experienced.    Although promising figures, the overall population of the blue crabs is 15 percent to 20 percent of what is was

before 1992.

Studies were performed from the mouth of the Rappahanock River

to just beyond the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.

 

Sources that stated this information were Robert O’Reilly, deputy chief of fisheries at the Virginia Marine resources Commission, and Ron Lipcius marine science professor from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

 

December 27, 2001