Watermen Blame Strippers for Bad Crabs

Did I say strippers?  I meant stripers.

Watermen Say Striped Bass to Blame for Low Crab Numbers

Watermen have been saying for months that striped bass, also called rockfish, have been eating crabs, and now they say they have proof.

A picture circulating the Internet since the first weekend of November shows a striped bass cut open with roughly 20 small crabs spilling out of it.

Watermen that spoke with WBOC said this is not a freak occurrence.

"That happens all the time. Right across from here, I fish with my father in law right off the wharf, and one day we caught one that had 47, but see they're not going to advertise that because I guess the rockfish is the state fish now," said waterman Larry Powley.
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"We have no grass no more, and the crab just lays on the bottom and gets soft, and that fish is just waiting for him to get soft enough to digest him." said Harry Phillips, owner of Russell Hall Seafood.

What Harry isn't telling you is that the crab scrapes (dredges that crab boat drag  hrough the grass beds to catch the peelers and soft crabs), are part of the problem with getting grass restored in the bay.  A small part probably, but certainly part.  On a couple of the fishing trips over to the eastern shore with Pete this year, I saw bunches of torn off sea grass in the wake of a crab scrape:

WBOC reached out to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to see if officials there believed this was why the crabs were so low in number this year. Brenda Davis, who is director of DNR's blue crab program, sent the following statement:

"There are no scientific data to support a supposition that Striped Bass predation is causing a significant depletion of the Chesapeake Bay blue crab population. In fact, studies performed in Maryland and Virginia to assess the diets of striped bass indicated that blue crabs make up a small percentage of the average striped bass diet. According to an intensive study in 2000, fish, particularly Menhaden, account for 94 percent by weight of the striped bass diet. In fact, other studies have shown that cannibalism by large crabs was a major cause of juvenile crab mortality, accounting for 75 percent to 97 percent of the loss of juvenile crabs in certain locations. Juvenile crabs find protection in grass beds, which is also where striped bass and other predators find the best opportunities for catching them. Nonetheless, crab survival is best in vegetated habitats, where they can hide. Any effort to boost crab survival needs to look toward improving habitat and the protection of sea grass beds...

The 25 inch striper I cleaned last night had a crab in its stomach, a small one about the size of thumbnail.  It also had a large menhaden in it, probably 10 inches long before the digestion process.  Stripers usually have fish in their stomachs if they have anything at all, but occasionally you find a stripper who has been scarfing crabs, and will have several.  Once I caught a striper that had a belly full of grass shrimp. 

Watermen just want an excuse for a bigger Striped Bass quota.