2013 Minutes
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BLUE CRAB CONFERENCE CALL SUMMARIES January, 2013 Participants: Steve Jacob - York College of PA, York, PA Ryan Gandy - FFWCC, St. Petersburg, FL Glen Sutton - TPWD, Rockport, TX Traci Floyd - DMR, Ocean Springs, MS Alex Miller - GSMFC, Ocean Springs, MS Jason Herrmann - ADMR, Dauphin Island, AL Jeff Marx - LDWF, New Iberia, LA Darcie Graham - GCRL, Ocean Springs, MS Harriet Perry - GCRL, Ocean Springs MS Steve VanderKooy - GSMFC, Ocean Springs MS Debbie Mcintyre - GSMFC, Ocean Springs MS The Blue Crab TTF was unable to meet at one location due to funding issues; therefore, a series of conference calls/webinars was held over a period of several days to review and update individual sections of the FMP revision. Summaries of each conference call follow. Economics Section The conference call began at 8:30 a.m. on January 14, 2013. Moderator, VanderKooy, welcomed everyone and pointed out that the purpose of this call is to discuss the progress being made on the Economics section of the Blue Crab FMP. GSMFC economist, Alex Miller, showed the group some of the tables and graphs he has been working on. Miller explained that a fire at NOAA many years ago had destroyed some very early data so he was only provided data since 1993, which is where Keithly had begun. Miller has spend onsiderable time figuring out Keithly's tables and data. Mississippi is missing processor data from 2006-2011, so Miller and Floyd will both investigate this with NOAA and the DMR. Miller will send the table with the missing Mississippi data to Floyd. There is a possibility that the missing data is a result of crab processors either not working following the hurricanes and/or sending the business to Alabama. Sutton stated that there are currently only two processors in Texas and have been since 2006. Miller pointed out that these processors are only those who report crabs. Categories on these tables are similar to the ones Keithly used but they have now been updated regionally. Miller will make graphs to show trends over time to go with the tables. He will also provide figures from the processor data. While some landings data has been provided by Mexico, VanderKooy has not had any response to requests for data from Venezuela so there are limited "non-U.S." landings. It was agreed that the economic data used should go through 201 lto match the landings, and the processor data would start at 1973. Miller will use whatever dollar value he deems appropriate to adjust for inflation. VanderKooy reminded all that we do not use color in our publication, so they should keep that in mind when making tables and graphs. VanderKooy will need the original data/spreadsheets used to generate all figures and tables. There was discussion of the terms "nominal" and "real". Miller explained that "nominal" indicates dollars in the current year while "real" means adjusted or deflated to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Miller will determine which terms are the most accurate and understandable and will add these to the tables and graphs appropriately. Terms such as CPI and any other new terms should be added to the glossary. Miller stated that he has to add marketing, certification, and the economic profiles of harvesters, processors, and dealers to this section. He would like to be able to give their average costs/earnings on a regional basis and track that through. Sutton stated that there is a big difference in price/cost of crab products in Texas. Miller stated that there is really not a good source of information available to provide us the prices that crabs or crab products are being sold for. Gandy stated that some of the Florida fishermen get top dollar for prime crabs and lower dollar for miscellaneous crabs. There is not any economic data available to represent these numbers. The fishing income section will include information from our survey results and from the processor survey Miller has already completed. The previous crab FMP showed values in "thousands of dollars". It was decided that this should probably remain this way because we commonly report in thousands or millions of dollars and pounds. This can be better determined when all tables, etc are turned in and are being formatted but large numbers can clutter a table quickly. VanderKooy discussed the timeline and asked that everybody get section updates to him by March ih for distribution before GSMFC' s Annual March Meeting in Destin. The Blue Crab Subcommittee will meet then and will review all section drafts. VanderKooy stated that he was still unsure if IJF would be able to cover travel for the TTF members to attend this meeting due to funding issues and delays. He would let them know. There is a deadline of March 29th for response to the Social Survey. Once those are received, Dr. Jacob will analyze the results and work it into the Sociology section. VanderKooy does not have a firm target date for completion of the entire FMP but pointed out that this information is all necessary for the stock assessment Review Workshop. He anticipates all sections to be complete by the first or second week in May. After the stock assessment, the TTF will meet again to finish the FMP. Funding, scheduling, the stock assessment review, and the social survey will all come into play when determining the final target date for FMP completion. VanderKooy reminded all that the next conference call would be this afternoon at 1:30 pm and will cover the Biology section. Biology Section The conference call began at 1:30 p.m. on January 14, 2013. Moderator, VanderKooy, welcomed everyone and pointed out that the purpose of this call is to discuss the progress being made on the Biology section of the Blue Crab FMP. Perry presented and explained the change in the structure of the Table of Contents. She stated that they had scaled back the Parasites & Disease section, focusing on only major diseases of concern specifically in the Gulf. Distribution and Abundance includes trends of abundance for juveniles in each state. Predation Affecting Survival is discussed only in terms of mortality. Predator/Prey has been included under Foraging. Gandy stated that Dr. Eric Schott from Maryland suggested considering HABs, pollution, etc. under biotic factors. Gandy is going to handle the section on HABs. He is going to send the suggestions from Dr. Schott to VanderKooy to cut and paste. VanderKooy typed in changes as per Perry and Gandy. Perry will handle the section on Eutrophication and sum up the impact on mortality. Perry has rearranged the structure here and asked that anyone who has any suggestions, please send them to her. VanderKooy will add this back into the Table of Contents and return to Perry formatted. Perry stated that the Geographic Distribution and Biology Description sections have been rewritten. She has made some additions to Larvae, Age, Growth, and Maturity. She also added some Smith and Chang observations as well as the pond work and Chesapeake information. The Nutrition section has been added. New figures were worked up through the independent monitoring data for Width- Weight Relationships, and Autotomy was moved up to this section. New information has been added to the Maturation and Age sections. Perry stated that she would welcome a contribution from anyone that would expand on the calcification technique. Graham reworked and updated the Reproduction section. Spawning has also been updated although Sutton may have some changes to suggest. Perry stated that there was not much change to Distribution and Abundance other than new megalopae information being added. Perry added the 2003 Spitzer et al study to Megalopal Settlement and Juvenile Abundance. There will be a summary of some of the independent data added to Juvenile Distribution and Abundance. There was a question as to whether juvenile abundance should be discussed by state or in more general statements. VanderKooy pointed out that it is more important here to discuss the biology, environmental effects, and physiology of the animals that drive their distribution and abundance more so than what the actual abundances are. Then in the Habitat section, habitat quality will be described and preferred habitats of these various life stages, i.e., whether they need structure, soft bottom, etc. That amount of habitat leads to abundances. They are separate things and it may not be appropriate here to talk about trends in abundance of juveniles over time. That is actually what is driving the stock assessment. Perry suggested and VanderKooy agreed that general statements should be made about overall abundance and decline, and then make reference to the other sections for more detailed information. VanderKooy stated that this is actually salinity and fresh water driven as well as habitat. The details about how distribution and abundance fluctuated over time can be covered later where it is appropriate. Perry stated that she will write some text up on Adult Distribution and Abundance. She has reorganized the Food and Feeding section but has not yet this section with the relevant Chesapeake. She does plan to have something soon. Sutton stated that he will send Perry a paper regarding size and salinity for possible use in the Maturity section. He will also forward two papers regarding sheepshead east and west of Apalachicola as well as one that discusses the geologic feature of the divide. As far as the Growth section, Sutton mentioned that a grad student is finishing up a tagging study which will yield growth rate per day and per month. It will be a published abstract soon. Sutton will provide a paragraph for Perry.