Decreasing male-to-female blue crab ratio concerns scientists

[jack1747]

https://www.bayjournal.com/article/decreasing_male_to_female_blue_crab_ratio_concerns_scientists

" Their concern is that crab regulations in recent years may have increased harvest pressure on males, which could mean a sperm shortage for females. A female crab mates only once, and the sperm she gets then has to fertilize all of the broods of eggs she may produce the rest of her life.

"The question is whether those females actually receive enough sperm to go ahead and fertilize the full potential of eggs that they could produce," said Anson "Tuck" Hines, director of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and a longtime Chesapeake blue crab researcher."

[Summertop]

Shocking!!!  You have idiots straight out of college who have had their head in books and not on the water getting paid big bucks to CREATE PROBLEMS.  R D called this male scenario about 10 years ago, you know a real waterman who actually spends time on the water.  This is why you have [curd] males on doubles, which never happened before. The last 4 years I have seen more and more junk 5" males cradling large females which I never saw before these sanctions.

[jack1747]

Shocking!!!  You have idiots straight out of college who have had their head in books and not on the water getting paid big bucks to CREATE PROBLEMS.  R D called this male scenario about 10 years ago, you know a real waterman who actually spends time on the water.  This is why you have [curd] males on doubles, which never happened before. The last 4 years I have seen more and more junk 5" males cradling large females which I never saw before these sanctions.

Yup. Reminds me of the COMB tour. Guy there said, "we just documented crabs eating the the cartilage out of the old shell after they shed".  I said well duh. You could'a asked any kid that grew up on the water and watch their first shed in a bucket. lol

[shedking]

Shocking!!!  You have idiots straight out of college who have had their head in books and not on the water getting paid big bucks to CREATE PROBLEMS.  R D called this male scenario about 10 years ago, you know a real waterman who actually spends time on the water.  This is why you have [curd] males on doubles, which never happened before. The last 4 years I have seen more and more junk 5" males cradling large females which I never saw before these sanctions.

I agree. It’s been a few years since I’ve seen a decent male holding a female. All sub 6” crabs with many in the 5” range

[evinrude 130]

LOL. Need more money for the scientists to find the answer, SMH. Not enough sperm is now the problem, like to see how they prove it, LMAO.

 It is a reason to start catching more females isn't it. Or have a moratorium on crabbing for a few years to see what the results are. Guess the scientists will come up with the answer before the bluecrab population suffers a total collapse.

I'm not holding my breath to wait and see , LMAO.

[rdbeard]

I smell a bu limit on one 1s in the tribs of the cb. I know this will be on the backs of the comm trotliners but i hope we would finally get the bu limit per boat to recs cut in half or 1 bu since there are far more recs than comm crabbers and most recs like comm trotliners crab the tribs.

[rdbeard]

LOL. Need more money for the scientists to find the answer, SMH. Not enough sperm is now the problem, like to see how they prove it, LMAO.

 It is a reason to start catching more females isn't it. Or have a moratorium on crabbing for a few years to see what the results are. Guess the scientists will come up with the answer before the bluecrab population suffers a total collapse.

I'm not holding my breath to wait and see , LMAO.

  i'm not sure they would have to prove it, they have never proven the female catch limits made more crabs.

[Mr. Ray III]

I swear, these scientist are the biggest idiots on the planet.  Seems like the bigger the grant is for a study, the stupider the outcome.  The DNR is comprised of a group of the worlds most ridiculous law breaking, privacy invading, stupid regulation making, disorganized cluster of people not fit to even flip burgers at McDonald's, in charge of the way a dying breed of people try to make a living.  

Normal people have been saying that you can't just keep all males while they were beginning discussions of the female harvest limits in MD and anyone should have figured that out if they've had the birds and the bees talk.

[Mr. Ray III]

I smell a bu limit on one 1s in the tribs of the cb. I know this will be on the backs of the comm trotliners but i hope we would finally get the bu limit per boat to recs cut in half or 1 bu since there are far more recs than comm crabbers and most recs like comm trotliners crab the tribs.

Bend over.  You're gonna get cut enough to make up for the recs catch too.  They won't mess with them. 

[crewstation]

Which one is the idiot that came out of college?  Or are you saying that college makes one an idiot?  Or is it that the idiot went to college and then actually spent their life trying to find answers to a growing problem related to their studies, and that makes them an idiot?  And if the idiots out of college are saying that this was addressed 10 years ago, and rd addressed the issue 10 years ago, does that make him an idiot?  Or is it just that every now and then, some of that research gives you an answer you don't like, or costs you money, and you feel the need to call them idiots?  Just wondering.    

[applestapler]

Let's take it easy on the formally educated. They might play a role in some of the regulations we dislike, but they're also the reason we don't die from a simple bout of the flu.

[Summertop]

I agree. It’s been a few years since I’ve seen a decent male holding a female. All sub 6” crabs with many in the 5” range

Yes sir Al, and you are an avid hunter and you know that the biggest bucks get the does for the most part.  No difference with the crabs until recently, you have sub par males doing a lot of the fertilizing.

[evinrude 130]

Which one is the idiot that came out of college?  Or are you saying that college makes one an idiot?  Or is it that the idiot went to college and then actually spent their life trying to find answers to a growing problem related to their studies, and that makes them an idiot?  And if the idiots out of college are saying that this was addressed 10 years ago, and rd addressed the issue 10 years ago, does that make him an idiot?  Or is it just that every now and then, some of that research gives you an answer you don't like, or costs you money, and you feel the need to call them idiots?  Just wondering.    

All good questions crewstation. 

But colleges give out degrees now days and I'm not sure if the person that receives them did any actual work to get it.  AOC comes to mind when I say that, LOL.


 Yes some folks get credit where they shouldn't. because you can use a broad brush to claim anything these days.  The real question is how crabs got to this point , because it took many years to happen. The reasons are numerous and not many want to accept them.
 But keep  taking the resources with no back up plan is not the right way to go.

As for what the DNR does in the future, all a guessing game at this point in time.  But keep  catching the males and catching more females to make money  solves nothing, IMHO. Seems like drastic measures need to be taken with regards to recs and comms.

[Mr. Ray III]

All good questions crewstation. 

But colleges give out degrees now days and I'm not sure if the person that receives them did any actual work to get it.  AOC comes to mind when I say that, LOL.


 Yes some folks get credit where they shouldn't. because you can use a broad brush to claim anything these days.  The real question is how crabs got to this point , because it took many years to happen. The reasons are numerous and not many want to accept them.
 But keep  taking the resources with no back up plan is not the right way to go.

As for what the DNR does in the future, all a guessing game at this point in time.  But keep  catching the males and catching more females to make money  solves nothing, IMHO. Seems like drastic measures need to be taken with regards to recs and comms.

Here is a drastic measure that'll put everything back to the way it was: Ditch the female catch regs put on the commercials about 5 years ago.  (although that'll never happen.)

[Mikie]

I think with regard to the college grads, Ray was trying to point out that the majority of them come straight out of College with NO actual life experience and are heavily involved in the decision making process that ends up affecting us all. This happens all of the time in a lot of occupations. Most of the time, on the ground personal experience provides a better perspective then just a Degree from some college.

[crewstation]

AOC comes to mind when I say that.

OK, there are certainly a number of idiots that come out of college.  A direct quote from AOC this past weekend: “The lives of children are going to be very difficult and it does lead, I think young people, to have a legitimate question. Ya know, should – is it okay to have children?”  I'm thinking she skipped English classes.

And as far as the declining crab population, it doesn't matter, because we're all going to be dead in 12 years. 

[crewstation]

on the ground personal experience provides a better perspective then just a Degree from some college.

Agreed, Mikie.  I was just asking Ray because neither the author or either of the people quoted in the article were folks with no personal experience.  Point is, we do need these researchers because our regulators are not going to listen to a group of commercial crabbers, unless the crabbers figure out a way to come up with gobs of campaign money.  With all of their excess profits. 

[Wallco99]

Which one is the idiot that came out of college?  Or are you saying that college makes one an idiot?  Or is it that the idiot went to college and then actually spent their life trying to find answers to a growing problem related to their studies, and that makes them an idiot?  And if the idiots out of college are saying that this was addressed 10 years ago, and rd addressed the issue 10 years ago, does that make him an idiot?  Or is it just that every now and then, some of that research gives you an answer you don't like, or costs you money, and you feel the need to call them idiots?  Just wondering.    

That's quite a cornucopia of inquiries. LOL. It's not just college making people stupid, it is now all schooling in general. There is actually talk going on right now in several districts of lowering the grade equivalent of an "A" to 85. This is because students are just no longer smart enough to attain, the already lowered "A" equivalent, of 90. Don't forget, EVERYBODY HAS TO GET AN "A". That's the new rule of childhood. And since "A" values will be lowered, this means the teachers can now spend even less time than they already do actually teaching the kids, and have more time to push their liberal agendas and bash our president.

Here are 10 things that absolutely ruined the millennial generation, and help contribute to their "entitled" attitudes:

1. Bike helmets
2. Trampoline nets
3. "Everybody gets a trophy"
4. Lowering an "A" from 93 to 90, and soon to be 85
5. Medication for every NORMAL childhood problem that's given a special acronym by a doctor
6. VIDEO GAMES and CELL PHONES
7. Coddling
8. Parents at bus stops
9. Facebook, Twitter, and every other ridiculous form of social media. (With exception of the BCA, of course)
10. Liberal teachers at EVERY level of education

[Wallco99]

OK, there are certainly a number of idiots that come out of college.  A direct quote from AOC this past weekend: “The lives of children are going to be very difficult and it does lead, I think young people, to have a legitimate question. Ya know, should – is it okay to have children?”  I'm thinking she skipped English classes.

And as far as the declining crab population, it doesn't matter, because we're all going to be dead in 12 years.  

We are not allowed to criticize grammar around here, so I am told. LOL. Perhaps I should have made that item #11 in my last post.

[Crabbyd]

Have you ever seen a contractor work themselves out of a job? 

These scientist are nothing more then contractors.

If there isn't a problem then there isn't a job......