CTFishTalk.com: Update on Blue Crabs - #7- latest report - Connecticut Saltwater Reports ( CT Saltwater Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

BlueChip

The Blue Crab Year -
The Search for Megalops – July 8th 2011- Report #7
You do not need to be a scientist to report!

Reports 1 to 6 are available – email Tim Visel at tim.visel@new-haven.k12.ct.us

The Search for Megalops foundation and concept dates back to the spring of 2006 and a fishing trip to Faulkner’s Island with the Principal of the Sound School Steve Pynn. Faulkner’s Island a favorite Striped Bass fishing location for Steve and the location of where I used to set lobster pots with a small lobster business I ran with my brother Raymond in the 1970s. We were very familiar with the location, just a few miles south of Guilford/Madison shoreline, each for a different reason.

The trip from West Wharf Madison in Steve’s 19 foot Sea Pro Skiff™ took just a few minutes, the morning was calm and fishing conditions ideal. It was a cool morning with a slight offshore breeze. Approaching the east side of Faulkner’s Island we had great anticipation as we reached for our equipment. That quickly faded when we looked down into the water – beside the slowing Sea Pro™ and saw thousands of crab larvae. Steve announced “we are done” and made a couple of obligatory rod casts. I did the same. Any Striped Bass could have obtained breakfast with a simple yawn there was so much crab larvae in the water. At first we thought it was just a small patch but then it dawned in us what were seeing was a massive Blue Crab hatch. Billions of larvae from about 1 foot below the surface to about 8 feet deep, the water was remarkably clear and to see all this larvae is something that we will both never forget. Billions upon billions of crab larvae and my comment was why was crab larvae out in the middle of Long Island Sound and where did it all come from?

We used a landing net to bring some up to the surface – small blue crabs about a half in inch across. As for the bass fishing, we didn’t get a hit or even a look, they were we surmised stuffed. After a while we tried to get away from all this food and we just couldn’t and be close to some structure. After a few stops it became clear our fishing trip was over. There was just so many of them. We estimated the hatch covered a 2 x 2 square mile area. If anyone ever sees this it is truly amazing to watch. At the bottom of this egg mass slightly larger crabs were eating those smaller and less developed. On the way in discussions turned to where did the larvae come from, how much would survive was it the result of Connecticut female crabs or did the crab larvae hitch a ride on the gulf stream and get transported into Long Island Sound. Good questions it seemed to us at the time. But we had few answers – we just don’t know that much about the Blue Crab population in Connecticut. A few weeks later we heard reports of a sudden appearance of small blue crabs between the Branford and the Old Saybrook shoreline and wondered if it was the hatch we observed.

Blue Crabs have always been a part of Connecticut’s shore life – good years and then not so good, sometimes none. Some areas were better than others but even that could change over time. One thing is for certain we seem to have better Blue Crab years now than 30 years ago. I was let me say that I’m a Blue Crab enthusiast – but the 2010 year is something way beyond the best in recent memory. Some say a century. A look at the fisheries history seems to support that theory – when its get hot here in CT we seem to have more Blue Crabs. This has happened before at the turn of the previous century – 1890-1920.

The years 2010 and 2008 were outstanding blue crab years but last year’s abundance was just unexplainable. The 2009 season was fair at best at least in eastern CT. But what about the west? And what habitats are important to Blue Crabs especially during cold winters.

So to fill in the blanks about Blue Crab’s habitat history we look to the blue crabbers to help. They know were the Blue Crabs are and are first to see the post megalops stages. Sometimes megalops can be netted with fine mesh plankton nets and observed with modest, field biology microscopes. Other times the final Zoea stages are large enough to be captured in common minnow seines.

The amazing blue crab season last year prompted the Search for Megalops and part of an inquiry based curricular component to interested teachers and students (ISSP and Capstone) as we look to them to help and report on some key questions. We also acknowledge the assistance for the monitoring equipment from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation grant in 2005 and will make all reports available to the Long Island Sound Study. The basic five questions are listed below.

1) When do blue crabs become active and commence to feed in CT waters?
2) Do our crabs survive the winter and a much different overall ecology than southern waters and if so where?
3) The size and distribution of female crabs carrying ovum – a spongy external egg mass and is a reducing population part of our habitat history.
4) The presence of Megalops stages and what habitats do they prefer.
5) What can be considered important crab environments and is a historical trend for environmental conditions possible to determine?

We look first to those who enjoy crabbing to help answer some of these important habitat questions. Every observation is valuable as we seek to know the environmental history of blue crabs in Long Island Sound. We need about 30 dedicated crabbers approximately 15 in the west and 15 in the east – as New Haven the divide between the regions to participate in this citizen monitoring effort. But what we need the most is the enthusiasm about blue crabs and the desire to learn more about them. We need those habitat observations.

If you know someone who would like to be Blue Crab citizen monitor please pass along this email communication. All observations are valuable, please email them to me at tim.visel@new-haven.k12.ct.us.

Anyone who would like to obtain a report can do so and we have started to post the reports on popular fishing websites.

This winter we hope to have a meetings workshop for those interested in learning monitoring/measure protocols for the summer of 2012.

Observations this year will help guide the survey methods for next year.

Every observation is important you do not need to be a scientist to participate!

For information about the Search for Megalops, please contact Tim Visel at tim.visel@new-haven.k12.ct.us

Otherwise good crabbing!

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