June 19, 2014 — According to the Virginia Marine Resources Commission's late April Blue Crab Winter Dredge survey — an ecological census of the bay's crustacean wildlife — the number of female blue crabs has reached a 12-year low.
Female crabs are needed to repopulate and replenish the pot of the Chesapeake Bay's overall blue crab population, forcing officials to propose additional restrictions on the amount of female blue crabs that can be harvested along the commonwealth's waterways.
The proposal, however, is not being well received by some area crabbers, many of whom call the proposed measures unnecessary and potentially damaging to the future of the state's blue crab industry.
Blue crab industry leaders also are concerned about what the additional regulations could mean for the cost of blue crab to consumers, especially if the baywide delicacy rebounds next spring.
"We've had regulations put on us for nearly 24 years, and hasn't done a thing," Diggs said. "The reason why I get up set with the VMRC is because Mother Nature is in control of this. They can slap on all the regulations they want, but it's up to her to decide when and where the blue crab will come back."
Proposed regs
In May, staff members of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission recommended commissioners move forward with a possible 10 percent reduction in female Chesapeake Bay blue crab harvests throughout the state.
The proposal comes despite a recent report stating that the female population decline was because of a bitterly cold winter that significantly impacted the crustacean's breeding season not the result of over harvesting, according to minutes recorded during the VMRC's Blue Crab Management Advisory Committee's May 27 meeting.
Read the full story at the Newport News Daily Press