CTFishTalk.com: Where are the Blue Crabs: Report #6 - Connecticut Saltwater Reports ( CT Saltwater Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

BlueChip

The Blue Crab Year
The Search for Megalops – Report #6
July 5, 2011
You do not need to be a scientist to report!
Hope Fades in East as West Reports New Huge Populations

Reports 1 to 5 are available – email Tim Visel at tim.visel@new-haven.k12.ct.us
Masses of crabs reported at Mouth of Housatonic River by LordShip Point.

A new wave of juveniles appears between Fairfield and Milford

Even the most optimistic crabbers in the east are wondering what happened. Millions of crabs were between New Haven and the Rhode Island border last year and reports from this region are slow to none. The estimate seems large but for the size of Long Island Sound tens of millions isn’t really that many – the Chesapeake Bay carrying capacity at times approaches a billion adult blue crabs. This eastern population is largely gone.

Some central reports – the last few days include;
DEP Docks Old Lyme – no crabbers
Oyster River, Old Saybrook – 5 hours crabbing, 1 crab legal, 1 small sub legal crab
Baldwin Bridge – Boat launch fishing dock - 3 Hours crabbing – no crabs – gave up
Saybrook Point – Dock N Dine shore area – 1 blue crab was observed here about a week ago. North Cove – no crabbing observed.
Westbook Town Landing – No crabs observed since middle of May.
Clinton Harbor – No crabbers observed

It’s becoming apparent that the large eastern population before last fall is now gone – winter killed or consumed by predators. The freshwater runoff from the Connecticut River this spring has been extreme. The Essex Town Dock a popular blue crab area last July had fishermen recently catching catfish, white perch, yellow perch and bluegills from the same location. This is the furthest I have seen yellow perch in the CT River main stream. Previously the most southern range for yellow perch was Hamburg Cove. It’s still clearly mostly fresh water this early in July in the Essex area. A strong saltwater tidal wedge has yet to materialize.

The CT west however paints a far different picture as reports now include a new wave of small crabs from 1 inch to 1.5 inches. This is complementing already a large legal population (run is between 20 to 25 percent legal to sublegal) and now a new hatch is appearing. Thousands of small crabs are mixing in with a maturing 3 to 4 crabs massing and preparing to march as the report mentioned up the Housatonic River. This report signifies the behavior of podding – crabs massing and moving as a single unit. This podding behavior had been documented for spider crabs in Long Island Sound in the late 1960s /1970s. It has not been documented to my knowledge for blue crabs. The presence of huge number of 1 inch to 1.5 inch crabs signifies a new hatch of megalops. These are not the same year class of the 3 to 4 inch crabs (March hatch), this size represents a mid May to late May hatch. Western crabbers now have a sizable over wintered population around 6 to 7 inches – A second wave that should grow to legal size or about August 1, the third wave now about an inch across should be legal size by early September. With a legal/sublegal run of 25% percent crabbing will increase, barring any fresh water toxicity – low oxygen events or storms. Catches between 20 to 40 crabs/hour is the norm, but that seems to be the tip of the iceberg – with so many small crabs shedding into legal size the potential catches to fishermen in the western Long Island Sound now seems to be staggering.

The eastern sections however are extremely slow and the picture here is becoming clearer. According to some veteran Westbrook crabbers marina owners noticed large adult crabs in early April, slow moving but large crabs. Many dead ones were also seen, thought to be winter killed and some early caught quite a few males until the first week of May when the first Stripped Bass appeared. That was the end of the crabbing for what it was. Some crabbers in the Oyster River Old (July 3) Saybrook – had catch rates about one crab/hour. Several crabbers blame the freshwater and cooler temperatures but were largely unaware of blue crab western conditions and were also troubled that they had seen only one 2 inch crab. Last year the Oyster River had “tons of shorts.” The east has been through this before in 2006 when a May/June megalops hatch blanketed the coastline. The crabbing went from nothing to good in a few weeks. But the clock is now against the east - a megalops hatch now has less than 60 days to grow to 5 inches before September. The west has a huge 3 to 4 inch population 40 days out from legal size and nothing like that has been observed in the east.

To my eastern reporters tell me if you go and don’t catch anything – I can take some of the eastern areas off “no report” to the west – let me know about the size and extent of the new wave of sublegal crabs. The heaviest pockets appear to be between Ash Creek Fairfield to Milford.

Thank you for all the reports – every observation is valuable as we learn more about our crab population. Email blue crab reports to tim.visel@new-haven.k12.ct.us

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