CTFishTalk.com: Special Notice Megalops Report #2-CT River Blue Crab Fishery - Connecticut Saltwater Reports ( CT Saltwater Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

BlueChip

Special Notice Megalops Report #2 – Connecticut River Blue Crab Fishery Fails to Materialize

The Search for Megalops
- Habitat Transition Now Apparent –
Blue Crab Research in Long Island Sound
You do not need to be a Scientist to report!

(IMEP Habitat History Newsletters can be found
indexed by date on the
BlueCrab.Info™ website: Fishing, eeling and oystering thread)
and CtFishtalk.com™-Salt Water Reports and
the http://bluecrabblog.blogspot.com/

Tim Visel, The Sound School

Over the past weekend, I had an opportunity to monitor the Baldwin Bridge DEEP public fishing pier, Old Saybrook and the small town dock in Essex, CT-- plenty of crab lines except no blue crabs. Water temperature Saturday August 29, 2015 was 71° at the Baldwin Bridge; on Sunday, August 30th, 76° in Essex. Ideal water temperatures for blue crabs except there were none. Most Connecticut crabbers would agree this blue crab season has been a very different one compared to the past few years. As more Megalops reports come in, I have had to answer the question about the difference many times. It got cold- that is all and at the same time many blue crab habitats were covered in huge amounts of leaf organic material, the east did not get as much leaves as the west and blue crabs survived in deeper saline pockets here along the shore. But the hurricane rains (and some powerful Nor’easters as well) swept huge amounts of organic matter into the estuaries after 2011 and changed the chemical characteristics of them – methane and sulfide. I mention these impacts in a series of papers, “nitrogen and bacteria on the “Blue Crab Forum™” Conservation and Environment thread. I want to thank those Megalops reporters again who sent me habitat observations throughout the year even reports of no crabs; their many reports and comments were helpful to habitat research.

The truth of the matter is that we may be entering a period of habitat reversal, climate influenced with temperature and energy being the largest “drivers.” The spring colder water temperatures have returned bay scallops and small lobsters to eastern CT shallows (lobstering has improved inshore even to the mouth of the Connecticut River until the middle of July). One of the largest changes in warm to cold periods is an increase in menhaden and the “peanut bunker” – young menhaden.

In the colder 1950s and 1960s a colder Long Island Sound had immense schools of peanut bunker and some very good fishing with them. Algal blooms were different as well, in the heat “browns” dominated, in cold the greens. Will the cold continue? Of that I am not certain, but what is apparent is that from the reports so far the increase and then decline of Blue Crabs now mirrors almost precisely a similar period 1898-1912 of intense heat and very few storms. That period saw the Southern New England lobster fishery collapse followed by a huge increase in blue crabs, most noticeable at the northern range edge of Buzzards Bay. Here the increase of blue crabs was the most dramatic in the 1880s- New Bedford area showing the most blue crabs in 1888-1910. The heat broke in 1924 and by 1938 these huge blue crab populations were gone.
Reports from some eastern CT lobster fishers may have already pointed us to a recovery in the eastern CT lobster population, the number of clean shorts (absent bacterial shell rot) is increasing and lobsters were once again on the “beaches” this spring.

The Connecticut River blue crab fishery failed to materialize. As of August blue crabs never made it to Essex and barely to the Baldwin Bridge, Old Saybrook catches ranged at 1 to 2 crabs/hour; many had more than four traps or lines. If you crabbed in the 1960s, you took it in stride - for the blue crabbers that started in 2010 or 2011, it’s been shocking and very disappointing, my best hour of Essex blue crabbing was 67 August 19, 2012 (Megalops #9, August 30, 2012) crabs, but catches of 90 to 110 crabs per hour were observed July 2010). (August 24, 2012, Megalops Report).

Nowhere near these catch levels was reported this year. Gone also were the coastal waves of crabs at night reported by striped bass fishers. If you located deep saline pockets- good catches were made, but as the summer progressed those densities declined.

A much larger Megalops report is being finished in a few days; and one of its topics will describe the return of green crabs and even spider crabs into the shallows. Many blue crab reports this year have mentioned this species reversal – they like the cold (more oxygen) and contrary to current beliefs both are edible (the Blue Crab Forum- The Other Crabs Spider crabs May 20, 2014) and Megalops Report #14 August 19, 2011. Green crabs are considered a delicacy in England and Denmark and Green crab recipes are on the Internet – look for some student projects about spider crabs next year.

Thanks for all the reports and comments we may be heading into a habitat reversal not seen here for a century.

All blue crab and habitat reports are very important, thank you for sending them!

Tim Visel

I respond to all emails at tim.visel@new-haven.k12.ct.us

Thank you striped bass fishers!

Special note: IMEP Habitat Series on The Blue Crab Forum™, Fishing, Eeling and Oystering thread might be of interest for striped bass fishers and the recent blue crab reversal, may answer the questions that have been asked about in the great Striped Bass year class of 1932-33. This year class (1932) reported to be the largest in a century suddenly disappeared and now thanks to some recent striped bass historical records made available to the Sound School (also contained in this collection are the fishing reports of the Cuttyhunk Fishing Club, 1880-1934) has been linked to the collapse of warm water forage species as cold returned to New England. Several calls this summer mentioned the possible collapse of silversides (salt water minnow called shiners (Menidia menidia) from striped bass fishers and that is related to the study. The collapse of warm water forage and the return of cold water forage species is not quick, that takes decades. I think a review of the 1932-33 year class for stripers will be of interest to striped bass fishers along the coast. The comments about silversides are also helpful, they confirm this explanation: “The Lost Year Class of 1932- A Striped Bass Habitat Failure” will be posted in October.