As the population starts to change, life gets more complicated for fishery biologists. They are looking for ways to estimate how fast the small crabs grow into legal crabs. Figuring out those growth rates for crabs will take more time and perhaps new techniques. Scientists on the survey are hoping to explain and perhaps predict the sudden surge of new crabs that often enters the crab fishery in August and September-sometimes glutting the market and dropping the dockside price, especially after Labor Day when the summertime demand slacks off. According to Rothschild the survey is now ready for operational use as an annual management tool.
Scientists go dredging in the dead of winter because they know blue crabs are easier to find.
That's the time of year when these beautiful swimmers hunker down in the mud and sand at the bottom of the Bay. But crabs are like trees, because they are fixed. And it is a lot easier to count the number of trees in the forest than it is to count the birds-particularly if the birds are migrating. Even with these winter crabs rooted in place, the sampling can get complicated. An annual index giving the average number of crabs dredged out of out of every 1,000 square meters of bottom.