Our Bay: Can the blue crab success story be repeated?

• Thomas Miller

By THOMAS MILLER, University of Maryland 

After more than a decade of low abundances, blue crab in the Chesapeake Bay appears to be back.

A report released this month by a group of federal, state and academic fishery scientists finds the blue crab population in the bay increased this year to more than 763 million crabs, a level not seen since 1993.

Although the abundance of adult female crabs declined from the previous year, the number of young crabs (589 million) was the highest ever observed since the bay-wide winter dredge survey, the principal source of information on crab abundance, began in 1989.