Challenges and Opportunities for Aligning Life History, Stock Assessment and Fisheries Management in US Blue Crab Fisheries

The Blue Crab, Callinectes sapidus, has a complex life history with larval habitat in the coastal ocean and juvenile and adult habitat in estuaries. It also occurs across a wide geographic range, inhabiting estuaries with vastly different geomorphology, climate and chemical environments. Harvest regulations, including restrictions on size, season, and fishing effort, have rarely succeeded in preventing declines or collapses in many US Blue Crab fisheries. Recent advances in our understanding of Blue Crab ecology provide both new challenges and new opportunities for stock assessment and fisheries management. 1) A long-term study of post-larval recruitment suggests that recruit-stock relationships may be strongly affected by variability in freshwater inflow. 2) Spatial patterns in reproductive status of mature females are indicative of previously-unknown spawning grounds in offshore areas. 3) Spatio-temporal patterns in harvest suggest that important variation often exists at spatial and temporal scales different than those of stock assessment and management frameworks. These advances, and many others, have the potential to improve stock assessment and fisheries management and lead to more productive fisheries and sustainable coastal economies.