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The Connecticut Blue Crab Population and Habitat Study 2010-2015
The Sound School – The ISSP and Capstone Project Proposal
Building a Network of Citizen Monitors
The Search for Megalops
Report 3 – June 19, 2012
You Do Not Need To Be A Scientist To Report!

• Shell Fishermen report small blue crabs in eastern CT
• Adult blue crabs in most coastal areas / conch predation concerns
• Cool rains slowed record breaking warmth
• Blue crabbers all report modest catches
• WindCheck© Magazine / UCONN Sea Grant Articles feature study.
• Blue Crab Health Research – University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
• Capstone Proposal available from the Sound School

Much thanks to Tessa Getchis of the University of Connecticut Sea Grant College Program who mentioned observations by shell fishermen who had been seeing many juvenile blue crabs in the Groton and Stonington area. This report and a few reports from the Milford area point to significant numbers of 3 to 4 inch crabs. This is a good sign, for these crabs will be growing into legal size crabs in the next few weeks. Salt ponds and coves should provide the first clues to the survival of these crabs.

Reports continue to come in about the Branford and Farm Rivers holding large hard shell jimmies but only modest catch numbers – 3 to 5 crabs per hour. Also reports from Clinton Harbor, CT River (lower), Westbrook, all mention a few hard shell male crabs and some occasional good catches. Schooner, Inc. out of New Haven has found a possible over wintering location in front of the Coast Guard Station. In sample trawl net surveys, crabs have apparently dug into the soft bottom and survived the winter. All reports make no mention of legal size female crabs as yet.

Some clammers and in Branford especially Steve Joseph of The Sound School reported huge numbers of the knobbed whelk in three to five feet deep shallow areas, feeding on something below the soil surface in early May.

Adult conchs are known predators of blue crabs and Connecticut’s conch population is now at higher levels than the past twenty years. A hard clammer (Guilford) reported seeing hundreds of knobbed whelk below the surface in May (not the channeled whelk) and potential predation impacts upon over wintering blue crabs is relatively unknown. Warmer temperatures favor conch species and the early hot days in April could have accelerated mating in shallow water. Knobbed whelk can feed three to four inches below the surface making them almost impossible to trap, but often caught in hard clam rakes.

Warmer water temperatures retreated a bit with the spring rains and for June 19th, water temperatures ranged about five degrees above normal, but prior to the cooler rain filled period it was an incredible 11°above average. Warmer temperatures usually bring in Gulf Stream tropical fish. In 1905 a very similar hot spring had researchers at the Wickford, Rhode Island lobster hatchery concerned as surface sea water temps rose quickly to 76° by July 1 and by July 30th, (1905) they recorded 82°. Tarpon and Barracuda were caught in Narragansett Bay by August. Our June sea water temperatures are much more modest, Long Island Sound current sea water temperatures from the NOAA National Data Buoy Center (http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/) finds Bridgeport (both 6/19) at 68.7°and New Haven surface at 69.4°. Another 6° degrees higher and it would be very similar to the 1905 summer.

Conversations with crabbers at Clinton Harbor feel it’s just still too cool and crabbing will be up the first of July. A few large jimmies are caught here with traps on incoming tides but catches are modest – 3 to 8 crabs/trip. Adult blue crabs can be seen at low tide by the town dock. Key to this year’s late blue crab season is the strength of the fall Megalops set. These crabs should now be visible and be the size of a green pea. All the crabbers I have spoken with including those in the East Haven/Branford area are very concerned about the impact of Irene. If this Megalops set failed over the winter in Connecticut, attention would turn to an early Chesapeake Megalops set and appearance of small crabs here in late July.

For most of the Connecticut blue crabbers, they are just waiting to see how many of the 3 to 4 inch crabs survived from last fall and if they begin to appear in large numbers. We should be able to tell any day, last year the coves and salt ponds gave the first reports.

The search for Megalops continues to get some great media coverage, first with a large article on the effort to learn more about blue crab reproductive capacity in Wrack Lines©, published by University of Connecticut Sea Grant. In fact, Steve Joseph’s son Kelly Joseph took the photograph of a yellow face blue crab that was the cover of Wrack Lines© Magazine last summer. The same photograph was utilized in an article on page 49 of WindCheck© magazine, May 2012. Both articles have resulted in people interested in learning more about blue crabs contacting The Sound School. Thank you Kelly!

The Sound School has made available five program reports and a proposal titled Blue Crab Research Topics for The Sound School and area high school. Students for any high school student interested in researching blue crab life history in our waters. One word of caution, for those new to crabbing, please respect the claws; blue crabs are very well armed and these claws can inflict serious painful bites. For those first timers, a good rule of thumb is to watch another crabber!

One of the areas suitable for a Capstone Project is collaborative research with Dr. Eric Schott of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science who has developed a proposal titled Monitoring Disease Of The Blue Crab Within Its Expanding Range In The Northeast he is looking for people interested in blue crab health. Dr. Schott is following the changes in Northeast blue crab populations and sent out this request in late March.

“Dear extension folks, shellfish health experts and bay men, fishermen, others,

The recent noticeable abundance of blue crab in the Northeast has caught the attention of many of us. For those interested in shellfish health, this expansion or increased abundance may provide an opportunity to track density- or climate-dependent changes in disease prevalence in an aquatic species.” Dr. Schott is looking for collaborative research contacts /partners. For more information please contact:

Principal Investigator: Eric Schott, UMCES-Inst of Marine & Environ Technol. 701 East Pratt Street, Baltimore, MD 21202 schott@umces.edu; 410-234-8881 www.umces.edu/imet/people/eschott

All Blue crabs and Megalops observations are valuable; please email them to me at tim.visel@new-haven.k12.ct.us.

Program reports are available upon request. 1-4 catch/observation reports 1-15 are also available from last year.
For more information about New Haven Environmental Monitoring Initiative or for past reports please contact Susan Weber, Sound School Adult Education and Outreach Program Coordinator – email to: susan.weber@new-haven.k12.ct.us
If you would like to receive these Blue Crab reports ask to be placed on the email directory.

If you do not wish to receive these reports, please let us know.

Looking forward to hearing about any Blue crab research.

Tim Visel

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.

Watch for the Megalops Portal on The Sound School website www.soundschool.com

The Sound School is a Regional Agriculture Science and Technology Center that enrolls high school students from 23 cooperating towns.

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