Management Evaluation for the Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab Fishery: An Integrated Bioeconomic Approach

Abstract

We integrated two existing biological models and a newly developed economic demand model to evaluate the biological and economic performance of alternative policies in the Chesapeake Bay blue crab Callinectes sapidus fishery subject to the requirement that yield and revenue be sustainable. The resulting model was able to compare outcomes of alternative management scenarios considered by policy makers. In order to provide insights into the impacts of relevant policy components in a management scenario, we regressed the sustainable outcomes, sustainable yield, and sustainable revenues on a set of policy components. A short fishing season for female crabs combined with a long fishing season for males appeared to increase sustainable yield and revenue. Among size limit policies, lower minimum limits for males, females, peelers, and soft-shell crabs appeared to reduce sustainable outcomes, while a restrictive maximum size limit for mature females seemed to improve fishery performance with respect to both sustainable revenue and sustainable yield.

Received December 18, 2013; accepted November 4, 2014

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research was conducted with support from Maryland Sea Grant under award R/FISH/EC-103 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. We thank Bo Bunnell, Tom Miller, and Douglas Lipton for sharing their individual-based model for blue crabs and Douglas Lipton for providing the blue crab market data. The participation of R.T.W. was funded in part through Texas AgriLife Research with support from the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, Hatch Project TEX8604. This is contribution 4970 of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.