Unexpectedly, Bay Crabs in Trouble, Prices Rise

It's true

 Mysterious blue crab shortage spawns big-time sticker shock

While the coronavirus pandemic shuttered restaurants and battered the blue crab industry last year, 2021 has brought more bad news: Prices skyrocketed due to a shortage of blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay, long a top producer of the "beautiful swimmer," a species distinguished by its bright blue claws (Greenwire, April 22, 2020).

The cause of the shortage is something of a mystery.

A winter dredge survey showed the overall population fell from 405 million in 2020 to 282 million in 2021, driven largely by a sharp drop in the number of juvenile crabs, which hit their lowest level since 1990. While it’s normal for the blue crab population to fluctuate from year to year, no one’s certain what caused this year’s steep decline.

Maria Meinke has crabs!

 

“I must admit, I’m a little surprised. …. The conditions are relatively benign; I don’t think there’s any environmental condition that could be driving it,” said Tom Miller, a professor of fisheries science and director of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s founding campus, the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory in Solomons, Md.

Miller, who also serves on the Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee, said the shortage would have made more sense if it had come around September, when the juvenile crabs grow big enough to enter the fishery.

 

“I would have expected those effects not to really come until the second half of the season,” he said.

Bill Sieling, executive vice president of the Chesapeake Bay Seafood Industries Association, complained that “everybody’s trying to make a big deal about the supply of crabs,” but he said there’s an easy explanation: “There’s good years and bad years.”

“There’s no exposé to be found, and there’s no evil person behind this or anything,” Sieling said. “Crabs are scarce this year because crabs periodically have been scarce, and prices are high because everybody wants to buy crabmeat here.”

Yep, it's true; crabs go up and down, and there doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason. But you won't make it better by catching more. 

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