CTFishTalk.com: Large Crab Hatch Reported off Clinton - Megalops Report #10 - Connecticut Saltwater Reports ( CT Saltwater Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

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The Sound School – the ISSP and Capstone Project Proposal
Building a Network of Citizen Monitors
The Search for Megalops
The Connecticut Blue Crab Population Habitat Study 2010-2015
You Do Not Need To Be A Scientist To Report!

The Search for Megalops –Report #10 -2013 – Blue Crab Year
September 30, 2013

• Back at School, Thank You for All Your Reports! High School Senior Capstone Project Proposals, Now available From the Sound School.
• Essex Connecticut Experienced Crab Wave
• Large Crab Hatch Reported Off Clinton September 12-16
• Smaller East and West Crab Movements Detected This Year
• Female Blue Crab Population Appears to Have Declined
• Eels, Blue Crabs and Eelgrass.

High School Senior Capstone Project Proposals Available
I want to thank everyone that sent in blue crab observations catches, sightings, observations and by catch reports this summer, a large thank you! Having so many people watching for blue crabs has made it very interesting and rewarding for me. In addition, many new eastern reporters joined from the Mystic River and Eastern Connecticut coves, thank you and welcome aboard! In addition an effort will be made this fall to contact some of the coastal high schools to see if any students are interested in “Capstone Projects” for blue crabs to fulfill a senior project graduation requirement that has long been a feature of Vocational Aquaculture Science and Technology Centers. In fact, our primary instructional method and student vocational organization phrase (FFA) is “Learning by Doing” where students actually conduct authentic and real world research applications.
The Sound School has three: Capstone Project Proposals for Blue Crab Studies; Habitat Quality: Why we need an accurate eelgrass life history; Habitat History (Coastal Core Studies) and Fisheries History (Did Native Americans leave us a fisheries history for blue crabs?)
All three reports seek to answer questions about Connecticut’s recent resurgence in blue crabs and the die-off of much of its lobster population after 1998. The Sound School also has three Capstone proposals that pose questions about the die-off of lobsters; also a lobsters fisheries history, lobster habitat quality index and if it is possible to rebuild Connecticut’s lobster fishery. All six proposals look at climate change factors and historical species shifts. Any students interested in these proposals should contact Susan Weber at susan.weber@new-haven.k12.ct.us They are free to anyone interested.
It would be great if coastal high school students also eventually joined in as “citizen monitors” in the Megalops’ study. These reports may be of interest to anyone interested in learning more about the Connecticut blue crab population.
Many first time Connecticut crabbers have emailed me with questions about “Where do I go crabbing?” or I have never crabbed before, “What do I do?” or “I don’t know Connecticut has blue crabs!” Unfortunately at times I couldn’t respond to all of them, but I would like to acknowledge the support obtained from Dr. Matt Ogburn of the International Blue Crab Blog™ and the web sites Connecticut Fish Talk™ and the Blue Crab Info™ site for posting these Megalops reports for crabbers.
Many thanks to the Blue Crab Info site for archiving the 2011 and 2012 Megalops reports and it is this site that contains comments from blue crabbers under the Northeast region crab reports. Many first time crabbers have benefitted from this site as they learn about crabbing from thousands of blue crabbers who share expertise and blue crabbing experiences online.
First time crabbers will find this website to be very helpful. I continue to respond to email at tim.visel@new-haven.k12.ct.us as soon as possible. Because of the number of crabs now in central Connecticut rivers, I will continue to report into November. If weather conditions remain steady with water temperatures hold in the high 60s, crabs should remain active in the lower reaches of many rivers. On September 30, the Essex Town Dock was 68° - getting ready for fall.
Tim Visel

Essex Connecticut Experienced Crab Wave

If anyone was thinking about blue crabbing this fall the next few days might be the ones to do it. My son Willard who works on the Mary E, a Schooner out of Essex, CT experienced something last Thursday that few people see, the annual migration of blue crabs leaving the upper reaches of estuaries in what could be termed a march towards the sea. As the sun angle decreases it triggers a mass migration in the Connecticut River. At about 9am September 26, blue crabbers at Essex Town Dock were catching about 5 to 10 blue crabs/hour which isn’t bad, but by 10:30 it had jumped to 20-30 crabs and by noon time as frantic shouts for more buckets and bags from crabbers, etc reached 50/hour. By 2:30 in the afternoon the catch rate had climbed to a 100/hr and higher. (Willard caught about 80). Crabbers quickly ran out of buckets and one enterprising crabber, when crabs began to leave his bucket, he rigged a rectangular box trap into a holding box and squeezed crab after crab into it, very clever I thought. Eagles and stripers were picking up the stragglers; and nearly all the crabs were “rusty”. The crabs are moving to river mouths now, the more saline areas but watch those deeper channels. The water is still warm (September 30). 68° at Essex Town Dock, 66° Kirkland Street, Deep River, down from 78° August 30; they may move but continue to feed. The dredged marina channels at river mouths appear to hold the crabs – crabs leaving the rivers in the fall I feel face an uncertain future, plenty of fish predators and not that much cover from them or storms.
It is going to be an interesting fall, warmer temperatures now predicted until November 15.

Large Crab Hatch Reported Off Clinton September 12-16
Much thanks to those fishers who recently dropped me a line about clouds of tiny crabs and huge crab hatches on Southwest Reef Clinton, and Long Sand Shoal, Old Saybrook. And yes, from the descriptions they are blue crabs; one report mentions that porgies were actively feeding upon them “coughing them up,” etc. These are the reports I have been waiting for, I believe we have a substantial Megalops set now underway. With many fishers looking for a Megalops set, I do appreciate these reports.
In May, 2005 I observed with Steve Pynn (former Sound School Principal) a blue crab hatch that extended from Kimberly Reef, east of Faulkners Island, halfway to the Branford Beacon and about 3 miles across – all small blue crabs. In 2008, I observed a much smaller hatch while recreational lobstering with my son Willard off Madison Reef and Guilford. It is something to see – billions of small crabs on the surface, to about one meter deep. Our striped bass fishing trip to some of Steve Pynn’s favorite striper rips in 2005 was short and uneventful. Before casting a line, Steve looked down announcing “We’re done!” And we were. We didn’t even get a look our baits – the stripers would just yawn and become full. It was amazing to see and this crab hatch started the concept of “The Search for Megalops” a few years later.
In all my years lobstering and fishing off Madison, I had never seen something like this, and this was very “different.” I’m sure that southern crabbers see these kinds of things all the time, but not for me until that day in Long Island Sound
The crab hatch from recent reports (and thank you again for them- that is exactly why many monitoring reporters are a help!) was large extending several miles between September 12 to 16. With a mostly southwesterly wind, they most likely hit between Guilford to the west and Old Lyme to the east. About October 15 (if the water temperature holds) they should be between nickel to quarter size and be large enough to survive the winter. Because of their small size, the creeks will most likely hold them (still believe open shore front predation without cover is huge) see Report #9, August 30, 2013.
The beach seines will have been mostly likely been put away by the end of October but I have listed some spots that may hold small blue crabs over shelly areas:
Black Hall River, Old Lyme
Oyster River, Old Saybrook
Westbrook confluence of the Pachaug & Menunketesuck Rivers
The Hammonasset River System, Clinton/Madison
Tom’s and Fence Creek, Madison
West River and East River, Guilford
Rt 146 (Lost Lake), Guilford

Smaller East and West Crab Movements Detected This Year
A small eastward movement was noticed in July but nothing like the eastward movement of crabs from the Housatonic in 2011 or from New Haven Harbor in 2012.
This year both East and West movements detected perhaps the tides helping Megalops distribute crabs back into western areas.
Crabs do move and in organized ways, called pods- what made the 2011 and 2012 “waves” noticeable was reports from Kayakers and striped bass fishers who at night while striped bass fishing were suddenly surrounded by patches of “football crabs” swimming frantically on the surface pursued by bass. Crabs can move and some extensive crab tag studies in Europe showed crabs can move quite well; studies conducted by the English Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries has shown that crabs move, even a crab that resembles an overbuilt tank than the sleek shaped blue crab the European edible crab.
The edible crab (Cancer pagurus) also known as the brown crab looks like a combination of our rock crab (Cancer irroratus and the Jonah crab Cancer borealis); it is commonly known as the piecrust crab as its carapace has a distinctive pie crust look. It also gets larger than the blue crab and is classified as a walking, not swimming crab. It can attain sizes of in excess of 6 pounds and is the largest crab fishery in Western Europe. Just by its appearance it is not the sleek, beautiful swimmer blue crab, instead preferring to hide in rocks, reefs and algal forests. As such, it moves at night foraging within a prey circle of about 150 feet; it is habitat dependent upon structure. This however does not mean that the edible crab is stationary, far from it, suture tagging experiments showed definite northern Sheringham to Crimsby movement make runs up to 20 miles except for one individual crab that crossed the North Sea and made it to Holland (170 miles) that’s a lot of crawling! P 72, O’Farrell 1966 lobsters, crabs and crawfish. Movement was generally north for tagged crabs over to Aberdeen, see Lobsters crabs and crawfish R. C. O’Farrel Fishing News Books, 110 Fleet Street, London, 1966 (Coward & Gerrish, Bath, England).
It does explain the swimming ability of blue crabs; it moves because it needs to- it needs to move from high density regions to lower, and as such it is often described as “waves” (see Report #1, April 17, 2013) by Jeffries 1966. Chesapeake Science, Vol. 7 #3 Fall, 1966.
Blue crabs move (swim and crawl) and appear to take advantage of strong tides to move, especially as small crabs. (August 24, 2012 Report: Adult blue Crabs Enter CT River in Huge Numbers).
Blue crabs also appear to move into estuaries each summer from overwintering areas as well and females move back to the more saline areas to release eggs. One of the things that perplexes crabbers is that they often move in “pods” together in a semi arranged way heading for a river (Blue Crabs Massing at Entrance to Connecticut River, July 23, 2013). Blue crabs are often described in New England fisheries histories as summer visitors because they visit but don’t necessarily reside in many popular blue crab locations. We need to know more about blue crab movements in many rivers, that is, why crab observations (studies) can help us understand present populations.

Female Blue Crab Population Appears to Have Declined

One of the things different from this blue crab season is the fewer number of female “sponge” blue crabs I observed this summer, last summer several locations (usually at the river mouths) had large populations of female sponge crabs. This happened last year at Clinton Harbor a frequent stop over spot for me from New Haven. Last July/August the number of female egg carrying crab was large and several crabbers just packed up and left rather than catch them. The number of crabs that had an orange sponge (a large round mass of crab eggs on the abdomen) was frequent then but not this year. Although crabbers complained that they ate the bait, it was a good sign none the less to see such a large female sponge population – the thinking was of course looking to a good megalops set down the road. But at almost every location this year the conversation was nearly the same a noticeable decline, of sponge females and the 1 to 2 inch size crab. (Expect perhaps the Black Hall River which seems to have a large female population all year).

During several visits at Clinton Harbor crabbers reported the same almost none this year. Females do move to the more saline areas in the fall/winter and this may have exposed them to the impact of several powerful northeastern including NEMO (see report #1, March 2013). After September 5th however, reports of large females gathering in lower higher salinity areas has increased.

It will be interesting to see if Western CT obtains a megalops set. Some of the heaviest sets did originate in the Westport, Bridgeport and Fairfield areas (2009-2010) which also reported large populations of female sponge crabs. From my observations however it looks like the female blue crab population (run mix average) is down considerably as my catch ratio is only 5% female but I fish the upper reaches of the Connecticut River so that observation is not from a high salinity area. It is therefore perhaps not indicate of many higher salinity areas which tend to show higher female mix.

In 2012 a large over wintering population of female crabs was located adjacent (offshore) the group Long Island Sound Coast Guard station on the easterly edge of the New Haven shipping channel, many of them were “sponge” crabs. It is also suspected that a very cool spring could have subjected over wintering females to a higher predation level by conch – who like starfish (both higher salinity predators) also enjoy a blue crab meal. I do have a few reports that female blue crabs also over wintering offshore around the Norwalk Islands.

The lower reaches of rivers have been thought to contain over wintering females. I will be interesting to see if females become more abundant in the fall or appeared in late summer trawl surveys. Female population reports are now increasing in Old Lyme and Clinton. Although the study seeks to locate important areas that can catch and hold a Megalops set, the most important factor is reproductive capacity. An increase in female crabs this fall would be a good sign for next year.

If you have caught any sponge crabs (they have a large organe pouch of extruded eggs (called “berried” in the lobster fishery) drop me a short email if you can. At one point in 2010, about 50% of the crabs in the Fairfield, Bridgeport were female sponge crabs.

Eels, Blue Crabs and Eelgrass
Across central Connecticut, many crabbers have mentioned an increase in eels this blue crab season here and others even into areas north to Massachusetts. At night some times the number of eels has made crabbing impossible, stealing and hanging on to baits and scaring off blue crabs. Is this a new occurrence, no it is not. In the 1880s Westport, Massachusetts near the mouth of Buzzards Bay in the late 1880s found a growing population of blue crabs but also huge quantities of eels. “Eels are abundant and are caught briefly at night with torch and spear “pg 274*. US Fish and Fishery Industries of the United States (1887).

Within fisheries historical records there seems to be correlation between eels and blue crabs from New Bedford to Westport and in 1880s the eel fisheries were substantial and plentiful in rivers and creeks of the entire Buzzards Bay region. They were caught in a box trap of simple construction measuring 4 feet long 10 inches wide, with slatted (lath) sides. At each end is a hole 4 inches square filled with two laths on a leather scrap (hinge). The eels force upon the slots entering to eat the clam bait but once in the floating slats seals the opening. These box eel traps were weighted with field stones (pg 271). The Coles Rivers eel fishers however used conical basket traps. By 1890 almost every coastal blacksmith was engaged in forging eel spears for a growing eel fishery in Southern New England. The same locations in which eels thrived so did “eelgrass” and by 1890 a growing blue crab population in all Southern New England. (US Fish and Wildlife Service Fishery Statistics).

Some of the best records of an expanding hard shell blue crab fishery (1880-1920) comes from Moriches Bay on Long Island it was now at the end of the century, the site of a growing New York Blue Crab fishery – taken from small boats – on page 364 of the Geographical Review Of Fisheries (1887) is found this section,

“Most of the hard crabs shipped from Long Island comes from this bay (Moriches) the people of other localities never having engaged so extensively in the work. They are taken from small boats by means of long lines, with short ones, or snoods, attached at intervals of 2 to 3 feet, which are baited with pieces of eel or other fish. The fisherman “overruns” the line from one end to the other, and as the unfortunate crustaceans are successively lured within reach, he secures them with his dip net.”

The fishing Village of Moriches Station gives us a unique view of both the eel and blue crab relationship a century ago as it was the principal shipping point for the surrounding region and its two largest volume fisheries was blue crabs and eels. It also details the blue crab season for 1880 on pg 365*.

“Eels are commonly shipped on Thursdays (pg 365) as many being sent on that day as in the rest of the week together. On October 28, 1880, 3,000 pounds of eels were shipped November 4, 1,980 pounds. The figures for hard crabs in 1880 were as follows each barrel containing from 225 to 250 crabs.”

Hard Crab Shipments – Moriches Station Long Island/New York 1880

June 126 barrels
July 403 barrels
August 1, 194 barrels
September 1,941 barrels
October 905 barrels
November (to 10th) 92 barrels

(1880) Moriches Station Total 4,661 barrels or about a million blue crabs.

The prices paid per barrel also varied (no doubt to New York City demand) and brought 25 cents per barrel (low) to $2.50 (high) the average about $1 per barrel. The business in only three or four years old (as the colder 1870s faded) and is growing.

“At the approach of winter crabs go into deep water and the men turn their attention to the capture of eels….

In almost every southern New England fishing community blue crabs and eels are mentioned together (as in New York’s fishery history illustrates sometimes in the same sentence). And the favorite place in which to winter spear eels – well that was “eelgrass” which again also indicates a soft bottom habitat perfect it seemed for eels and over wintering blue crabs.

That is why I am certain that pockets of hibernating blue crabs were also located and speared accidentally although most likely rejected by commercial markets then. However a couple of dozen blue crabs would not be tossed out but rather perhaps consumed at home. There is reason to believe that the Native Americans also found this type of habitat eelgrass to be conducive to eels and blue crabs together and most likely looked for it as we do now in early spring after the long winter. Many records indicate a historical spear fishery for them as well.

The eelgrass/blue crab and eel population will be discussed in future reports. It is important to note that huge sets of Blue Crab Megalops have survived in what is now a low prevalence period for eelgrass, eelgrass may therefore signal a long term “habitat reversal,” and give credence to being a habitat changer indicator rather than a consistent background habitat type.

This past summer reports of eels and blue crabs in the same habitat is in fact natural. At times eels made blue crabbing miserable, and other times impossible during slack tides. However many crabbers have contacted me about the eels this summer – what can they do to avoid them, etc. Unfortunately when you example the historical fisheries literature they nearly always occupy the same lower estuary habitat profile – even in winter. The historical blue crab/eel habitat relationship appears strong. More than once this summer good crabbing has suddenly stopped when eels appeared and the first sight is usually met with loud groans from other crabbers.

One crabber however decided to take advantage of this chum effect and made a small loop of about one foot above this chicken bait and attached a flounder hook baited with a pieces of clam, he started to hand line eels one at a time delighted as his favorite fish was in fact eels. Many crabbers have offered up the eels caught in box traps to others this summer and more times than not someone at the dock wanted them for eating (they make good striper bait also).

In Europe eels are considered a prize catch and it was good to see these eels used and not wasted. To crab in areas of high eel population (and especially at night), I often use a mesh Vexar™ bait bag. It keeps the bait intact longer and seems to catch more crabs in the presence of eels. Try it sometime during the day also, I find it to help catches as crabs have something to grab on to especially in moving tides.

Email blue crab reports to: tim.visel@new-haven.k12.ct.us

All blue crab observations are valuable as we learn more about our blue crab population.

The Search for Megalops is part of a Project Shellfish/Finfish Student/Citizen Monitoring Effort Supported by a 2005 grant to The Sound School from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation grant #2005-0191-001.

Program reports are available upon request.

For more information about New Haven Environmental Monitoring Initiative or for reports please contact Susan Weber, Sound School Adult Education and Outreach Program Coordinator at susan.weber@new-haven.k12.ct.us

The Sound School is a Regional High School Agriculture Science and Technology Center enrolling students from 23 participating Connecticut communities.