Editor:
Our blue crab population is declining. Of course there are many folks who immediately want to blame climate change! Give me a break! If you need money to study the mating season of earth worms, just tie it into being a critical part of climate change.
Are we supplying the market in other states and subsequently overfishing the blue crab fishery both here and in South Carolina? How about shipments to Maryland where they say the Chesapeake Bay crab population is now increasing!
Going back many years, they could not supply their retail market because of terrible harvesting methods. The shortage was filled from other blue crab fisheries for high dollars. Those folks eating those world famous Maryland Crab Cakes were eating Georgia crab meat! Live crabs taken directly from the crabber to the airport and flown to Baltimore.
It was eventually determined by research that overfishing of females was a major cause of the shortage in Maryland waters.
Georgia’s problem remains the same as it has always been. No funding for enough DNR agents to police the commercial and recreational fishing on our coast and enforce the existing regulations.
Because of our estuaries and rivers and thousands of acres of marsh grasses on the coast of Georgia, we have over 3,000 thousand miles of shoreline. That is more shore line than California, Oregon and Washington State have all together!
Last time I checked, we had about three or four agents responsible for all of it. Atlanta doesn’t care. Our political representation statewide and in Washington could care less. Our DNR is underfunded!
The result is everybody and his brother harvesting crabs which are below size limits, along with sponge crabs. I would add immature females to the list. The latter is currently legal to keep but, in my opinion, should never be harvested. Every time you take one out of the water you are taking away a potential two million more crabs! I have too often witnessed baskets full of undersized crabs and young females, even in seafood markets. I refuse to buy them. The smallest legal size is five inches tip to tip.
When I was a kid I used to walk down to the old turnstile type Thunderbolt bridge. I would have a croaker sack, crab lines and chicken necks. Incidentally croaker sacks were made of burlap but are mostly plastic these days. The story is that they were used extensively to harvest bullfrogs. The croaking from inside the bag gave them their name.
Under that bridge I could catch more big barnacled male crabs than I could carry. They would measure six to 8 inches tip to tip. I would haul them up to Charlie Russo’s fish market on Waters Ave. Mr. Russo would pay me handsomely for them. You can sit near that bridge thru a couple of tides today and you may not catch any crabs!
Grab the crab by it’s rear paddle legs, turn it over and it will seem to go to sleep. Be sensible in handling them, especially if you are showing one to a child. Those pincers can hurt! You can observe what the underside looks like. The male has a “T” shape flap. The immature female, one that has not mated, will have a triangle shaped apron. The mature female apron will have a shape similar to a scallop shell.
A sponge crab is a female with a cluster of orange colored eggs tucked under that shell shaped flap. The cluster of eggs represents about two million larva. You absolutely should not keep that crab! It is against the law. You are eliminating two million crabs for future harvest.
Females with the shell shaped apron and no eggs can be harvested even if they are less than five inches tip to tip. They have already produced their eggs which is a once in a lifetime event for them. They are no longer considered essential to the maintenance of the population of blue shell crabs.
Blue shell crabs usually mate from about May thru October. The female will produce around two million eggs! It happens only once in their life span.
It is perfectly legal to catch and keep an immature female. She does have to be at least 5 inches between points.
So, you can catch and keep a female that has not mated. In doing so, you are assuring that she will not provide another two million larva that will turn in to more blue shell crabs! Think about a basketful of them. Population growth of multi millions of crabs never to be experienced?
Makes no sense to me that they are legal to catch, especially if the population is dwindling, but I am sure the DNR can explain it.
Roy Hubbard, Richmond Hill