Maryland DNR Proposes 2009 Blue Crab Regulations

December 2008 --To help rebuild the Bay’s blue crab population, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has proposed new recreational and commercial fishing regulations for the 2009 blue crab season.

The proposed regulations require all recreational crabbers not currently licensed to register for a complimentary license from DNR.

For the 2009 commercial blue crab fishery, proposed regulations include:

• Daily bushel limits for mature female hard crabs. Limits will be set by DNR once results from the annual winter dredge survey are available in April.
• Closing the commercial season for harvesting mature female hard crabs from June 1 through June 15, Sept. 26 through Oct. 4, and Nov. 11 through Dec. 15, 2009.
• Temporarily freezing unused licenses until the blue crab population recovers.

The proposed regulations continue DNR’s scientifically established conservation goals of reducing the female blue crab harvest by 34 percent and ensuring that no more than 46 percent of the crab population is harvested each year. The current abundance of adult blue crabs is 120 million, only slightly above the established minimum safe threshold of 86 million crabs and well below the conservation target of 200 million crabs. (Read more from DNR about how Maryland and Virginia are working to restore blue crabs.)

“We need more precise, annual bay-wide recreational blue crab harvest information in order to better manage this fishery,” said Tom O’Connell, Maryland Fisheries Service director. “By requiring that all recreational crabbers are either licensed or registered, we can increase the accuracy of our survey and more reliably obtain the information our biologists need.”

Visit DNR’s website for more information about the proposed regulations, including dates, locations and contact information for submitting public comments.