Stabilizing South Carolina’s Blue Crab Fishery Brad E. Floyd South Carolina Department of Natural Resources Office of Fisheries Management February 4th, 2019 1 Problem Statement The mission of the Department of Natural Resources is to be the principle advocate for and steward of South Carolina’s natural resources. Within DNR, I work for the Office of Fisheries Management (OFM) which deals with all aspects of commercial and recreational marine fishing in South Carolina. OFM staff make recommendations to the general assembly for changes to existing laws or proposed new laws that govern the marine resources of South Carolina. OFM staff also serve on various committees and counsels that work across state lines to manage fisheries on a regional scale. Laws governing the blue crab fishery in South Carolina fail to put limits on harvest or participation in both the commercial and recreational components of the fishery. It has been a goal for many years at OFM to propose legislation to bring our fishery laws in line with those governing the fishery in other states. It's believed that overall abundance of blue crabs is declining while the price continues to rise. This creates a potential management issue since there are no limits on effort, catch, or participation in the commercial fishery, and similar problems exist with the recreational component of the fishery. Current and former fisheries managers for OFM would like to see legislative changes to fishery laws that limit recreational harvest to a daily limit and cap the number of commercial licenses sold each year. Data Collection The first step was to characterize the blue crab fishery by analyzing the landings and licensing data. Also, an experienced commercial blue crab fisherman and fisheries managers were interviewed to obtain their observations and insights. Once all the information is summarized, analyzed, and reviewed, recommendations will be made to senior level fisheries managers to develop legislative proposals that would begin to limit the fishery. 2 To assess how South Carolina’s blue crab laws compare with other neighboring states, a summary of state laws in the Southeast region was compiled. This task was easier said than done, however. The laws for small states like Georgia and South Carolina were straightforward and easy to summarize in a concise table. The bigger the state, the more complicated the laws become. For states of North Carolina and Virginia, the laws were condensed to a broad overview and complied in a concise table along with South Carolina and Georgia (Table 1). Florida’s blue crab laws were complex, varied by region, and are included in the appendix section (Appendix A). Commercial blue crab landings data for the past ten years (2007-2017) were obtained in an excel spreadsheet from the statistics section of the SCDNR’s OFM. These data included: number of commercial fisherman and vessels contributing to the harvest, number of trips by vessel, pounds of blue crab landed each year and the vessel value of those landings. Commercial licensing data of blue crab fishermen in 2017 was also obtained from the OFM statistics section. These data included numbers of crab traps sold and the number assigned to each fisherman’s license. OFM statistics section also provided demographic information on blue crab fishermen including: age, county of residence, out-of-state participation and years of activity in the fishery. Information on opinions and participation of recreational blue crab fishermen was obtained from previously conducted surveys of recreational anglers. These surveys were conducted over several years by Responsive Management, a survey research firm specializing in natural resource, hunting and fishing, and outdoor recreation issues. Data Analysis & Results Commercial & Recreational Blue Crab Laws 3 Commercial blue crab laws in the Southeast region had some similarities and some stark differences (Table 1). The similarities existed in the licenses required, fees for traps and reporting requirements. South Carolina differed from others by having no seasonal closures or limits on the number of traps that a crabber can license at one time. South Carolina also had no specific area restrictions, but this is likely due to the size of the state and little regional variations in fishery conditions and practices. Recreational blue crab laws lacked a daily limit which most other states have and the number of crab traps that could be fish at one time by a recreational crabber was significantly lower than other states in the region. One implication that the commercial fisherman and fisheries managers interviewed for this project discussed was that it is perceived that some recreational fishermen wanting to fish more than two traps a day will become licensed as a commercial crabber. This will allow them to fish more than two traps a day but they will not have to report catch because it is not being sold. This results in “phantom” commercial crabbers, those that buy licenses but never have landings reported to OFM statistics section. Table 1. State Regulations for commercial blue crab fishing in the surrounding states. State Required Trap license Trap limits Seasonal Area Restrictions Reporting Recreational licenses fees or Restrictions requirements trap limits maximums VA commercial up to 85 425 recreational limit of 255 to 425 commercial 5 fishing crab traps closed June traps depending on fisherman license $48 1- sept 15 watershed fished reports commercial additional commercial vessel traps $79 at Dec 1-March license 40 trap 16 commercial increments gear license NC commercial none 1000 recreational only in Newport river Wholesale 5 fishing and at 150 traps per vessel dealer reports license commercial commercial closed from vessel Jan 15-Feb 7 license commercial gear license SC commercial $25 for 1st none none must stay below legal Wholesale 2 fishing 50 traps saltwater/freshwater dealer reports license dividing line 4 commercial $1 per each vessel additional license trap commercial gear license GA commercial $50 in 50 200 per none must stay below legal Wholesale 6 fishing trap vessel saltwater/freshwater dealer reports license increments dividing line commercial vessel license commercial gear license Commercial Landings Data (2007-2017) The number of commercial crabbers fluctuates yearly between one hundred fifty and two hundred, with a ten year trend that shows the participation in the fishery slowly increasing (Figure 1). This is to be expected as the population of coastal South Carolina and the demand for seafood products increases. Figure 1. Number of commercial crabbers annually 200 195 190 185 180 175 170 165 160 155 Number of commercial Number commercial of crabbers 150 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Year The number of vessels participating in the fishery has remained around 200 for the ten year period with a trend showing a slow increase over the period (Figure 2). The vessel trips per year varies from around 11k to a high of 16k for the ten year period, and also shows a trend of increasing effort overall (Figure 3). 5 Figure 2. Number of vessels annually 250 200 150 100 50 Number of commercial Number commercial of crabbingvessels 0 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Year Figure 3. Number of vessel trips annually 18,000 16,000 14,000 12,000 10,000 8,000 6,000 4,000 Commercial Commercial crab vessel trips 2,000 - 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Year The pounds of blue crabs landed has fluctuated between three and six million pounds during the ten year period with a peak in 2012 of around six million pounds (Figure 4). Effort and catch do not always correlate in fisheries, especially short lived species like blue crab. Weather and spawning success each year has a great impact on the availability of the resource. Increasing effort doesn’t always mean more product landed each year. 6 Figure 4. Pounds of blue crab landed annually 7,000,000.00 6,000,000.00 5,000,000.00 4,000,000.00 3,000,000.00 2,000,000.00 Pounds of blue crab landed 1,000,000.00 - 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Year A driver of the slow increase in participation and effort in blue crab commercial fishing could be related to the steady increase in the price fisherman are being paid for their catch. Although, the pounds of crabs landed has fluctuated yearly the amount of money being earned by the fishermen for their catch has been steadily increasing though out the ten year period (Figure 5). Figure 5. Vessels value of blue crab landings annually $7,000,000.00 $6,000,000.00 $5,000,000.00 $4,000,000.00 $3,000,000.00 $2,000,000.00 $1,000,000.00 $0.00 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Value of bluelandings crab US in dollars Year 7 Commercial Licensing Data The number of crab traps licensed annually has been slowly increasing with a peak of just over 35k in 2015 (Figure 6). Although the trend is increasing, overall the number seems to be holding steady between 30k and 35k a year. Although crabbers have no limit on the number of traps they can license each year, the number seems to not be increasing correspondingly to the increase in participation in the commercial blue crab fishery. Figure 6. Crab traps licensed annually 40,000 35,000 30,000 25,000 20,000 15,000 10,000 5,000 Number of licensed Number licensed of crab rapts - 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Year One reason the number of traps licensed each year has not seen a great increase is because the vast majority of commercial blue crab fisherman only license and fish around fifty crab traps (Figure 7).