Interesting article today in "The Examiner" Baltimore 2/27/07

[Crab A Lot]

     
     I read an article today in "The Examiner" Baltimore 2/27/07 about Yonthan Zohar, director of center of marine biotechnology who is doing reseach on better understanding and satabilizing the blue crab population in the Chesapeake Bay.

The blue crab population is in a crisis, and he has proven that you can raise Maryland  blua crabs in captivity quickly.
His team has released 300,00 of the 1/2 dollar size,tagged crabs into the upperbay tributaries,not to replenish the fishing stock,but to monitor their travels to their breeding areas at the mouth of the bay.Spawing stock has decreased 80-85 % in the last 10 years!

He has discovered that instead of the common belief that crabs mature in 2 years,they actually take 5 mos.to go from hatchrey to sexual maturity.

There is a reward to the Maryland watermen for reporting tagged crabs.

The Maryland watermen Assoc & Phillips seafood are contributing to the hatchery research. 


The main reason for this hatchery project is to better understand the life of the crabsand better manage them,with appropriate regulation,not guesswork.


As recreational and commercial crabber we owe many THAHKS to these researchers who are working so hard to savr theBLUE CRABs which provide us with so much pleasure and the best tasting crabs in the world!!!!!!!!! 


Hooray for yhose who save the BLUES.



           Crab a lot!

[R D]

It's a little longer than 5 months,you have to remember that a 1/2 dollar sized crabs has shed 15 to 18 times or more already,even at 2 sheds a month.........but it is great that they are doing a little research up there,breeding stock in everything else in the world means big strong males too.............just something to remember,

[horsefly]

I'm sure they meant sexual maturity for the females at 5 months. But that really sounds like a very short period of time especially in cooler waters of the upper bay. I'm not a marine biologist so I may most definitly be wrong. We do a crab tagging thing here also. Our crabs never get far from their feeding grounds, as long as the food stays. Seems like that article is a old report because I read last year the same thing. As a matter of fact the news was about commercial crabbers eventually raising young crabs and releasing them. I would have to dig the article back up. I think it was from the National Fisherman.

[genecrabman]

Before we start sucking up and thanking these "RESEARCHERS" you might want to see how much grant money they're milking the State and Government for... These guy's remind me of Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton, screaming problems when many things are better left alone.. We have several of these people doing work for Sea Grant here in N.C.   They make more money by "RAPING" the  Sea Grant program, then they do working commercially on the water... Also many of these people are professors at colleges that have there students do all the work, While they pocket the money..and I'd bet a lot of it is flawed...It's hard for me to trust studies made by students who have growed up in the Midwest..jut my two cents   By the way some of these people make over 75,000 dollars from these scams   Google Sea Grant and check who gets the Grant money, You'll also see that many of the "same" names keep popping up...    I call em       "SEA GRANT RAPIST"

[tattoo]

Can I get one of those GRANTS. 

[horsefly]

Yes Tat you too can apply for a grant. It's a bunch of paper work and [curd]. In the end, Gene is right on this after the grant is split up "you" actually get very little. He's also right the fact that the same names pop up year after year for useless [curd]. One guy got a grant to put crab pot counters on your pot puller. I feel it's already to late for counting purposes as we have to fill trip tickets out and mark how many pots fished. The Mexican guy that works down with us quit asking and just "assumes" a number. So how accurate is the count.....beats me. I still haven't seen the report where they have said exactly there was 2 crabs per pot caught for a total of 12,000 pots for the month of July(all an example.) Bunch of stinking bean(crab) counters

[tattoo]

and i guess they get paid for that. ?

[horsefly]

Look Tat the state of NC willing be willing to pay ya cash if ya bottled up a fart and used it in some zany way for crab research. I started to fill out the papers (not for the bottled fart ) but for a bait idea and realized some guy in Maine or something has done it for lobster pots. If I scratch my head for more ideas I would be "totally" bald and called KC's cousin Southern Cousin that is.

[tattoo]

 

[Crab A Lot]

Before we start sucking up and thanking these "RESEARCHERS" you might want to see how much grant money they're milking the State and Government for... These guy's remind me of Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton, screaming problems when many things are better left alone.. We have several of these people doing work for Sea Grant here in N.C.   They make more money by "RAPING" the  Sea Grant program, then they do working commercially on the water... Also many of these people are professors at colleges that have there students do all the work, While they pocket the money..and I'd bet a lot of it is flawed...It's hard for me to trust studies made by students who have growed up in the Midwest..jut my two cents   By the way some of these people make over 75,000 dollars from these scams   Google Sea Grant and check who gets the Grant money, You'll also see that many of the "same" names keep popping up...    I call em       "SEA GRANT RAPIST" 


Genecrabm,

                   You sound very bitter toward Goverment grand!

I'am not sucking up to the researchers who are at least trying to impove the Chesapeake Bay and it's tributaries,they are so polluted,Google Yonathan Zohar and see what his research is all about before you condemn him,you just might learn something and see something good in his research,if something isn't done about the pollution, their will be no
crabs to catch!



          Crab a lot!

                         P.S.Smithsonian,as well as biologist from Maryland, Virginia, North Caroline are working on this project,let hope they can impove the blue crab population!!!!!!!

[tattoo]

I hope so too.

[genecrabman]

Wow crab alot didn't mean to step on any toes.. Sorry if i did but I'll stand by my statements. I did as  said, and Googled Mr.Zohar in the Maryland Sea Grant  Funding..   He seems to be doing pretty good, in 1992-1996 he recieved $444,842.00 for hormone studies in 1996-2001 he recieved $475,099.00 for hormone studies in 2000-2002 he recieved $257,096.00 and again in 2003-2006 he recieved $249,142.00 for hormone studies  sounds like he's got it going on...to check these numbers out they can be found at hhtp://research.mdsg.umd.edu/FMPro     I do a little more research tomorrow,  tyvm .   Gene                                                         


  P.S.  wake up  crabbing brother, with these guy's it all about the MONEY.  If they can't find problems they lose their  chance to line their pockets..

[tattoo]

Man just one of those grants would pay off my house. 

[genecrabman]

EDUCATED WELFARE     now i now why they call it a BS degree

[tattoo]

  how ture.

[crabtracker]

how do you tag a crab? last i heard they shed.

[Crab A Lot]

http://www.serc.si.edu/labs/fish_invert_ecology/bluecrab/hotline.jsp

   Summertop,

                   Thanks for putting the web site how to tag a crab on the thread,we need some positive input on how to save the blue Chesapeake crab and curb the pollution


          Crab A lot!

[tattoo]

Thats neet. hope I catch one of those.

[horsefly]

Thats neet. hope I catch one of those.

We have  a simalair tagging program too. If you find a crab with a tag you turn in the tag or info and can receive a hat or shirt and /or $5.00 I also think they have a greater reward. I know several of the local crabbers who particpate in the program(as taggers) not only for crabs but for Drum,Tarpon,Rock and Cobia

[genecrabman]

The funding for the NC program has been cut off  Brain.. Also I was told that most of the crabs that where tagged and released where caught within the first two weeks, many in the first days. I'd like to see how they tag the juvenile crabs tho, the tag won't work as they do on the sooks.. Maybe they have a chip installed inside the body of the crab.

[horsefly]

Man I have not been up to date with none of this [shiz]. I must get busy and very updated.

[tattoo]

Stay tuned you will find out everything you need to know on this site. 

[horsefly]

No TAT I must do some more research on the NC State website into committees and funding etc, I've been goofing off too much I guess, dreaming more and more of those tasty blue crustaceans

[tattoo]

It shouldn't be too much longer till your out on the water catching them. 

[crabtracker]

http://www.serc.si.edu/labs/fish_invert_ecology/bluecrab/hotline.jsp

OK, This site shows large crabs with large tags, how did they tag 300,000 half dollar size crabs? How long would they keep the tag? How long do the large crabs keep the tag on? Do they have tiny tags for tiny crabs?  Do the tags grow with the crab?