Search Results for blue crabs

Videos:Blue Crabs

Last updated: September 15, 2026

Why are blue crabs important and what's being done to ensure they remain an icon of the Chesapeake Bay? See how researchers from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources monitor the blue crab population. Learn more about blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay Program’s online Field Guide.

Pages:Blue Crabs

The Bay’s signature crustacean supports important commercial and recreational fisheries. But pollution, habitat loss and harvest pressures threaten blue crab abundance.

Pages:Guided Tour: Blue Crabs From Bay to Table

Follow the blue crab on its journey from the brackish Bay to our picnic tables.

Publications:Blue Crabs and the Chesapeake Bay

Last updated: May 9, 2025

This fact sheet overviews blue crab anatomy, life cycle, habitat and current status of the Chesapeake Bay blue crab population

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FAQ:Blue Crabs

What do blue crabs eat? Blue crabs are opportunistic omnivores. They will eat nearly anything they can find, including bivalves, dead fish, plant and animal detritus, and even other crabs!

Publications:2024 Blue Crab Advisory Report

Last updated: May 27, 2026

This report summarizes the results of the 2022 and 2023 Blue Crab Winter Dredge Survey, conducted from December to March by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS). This report estimates the abundance of blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay. The information in this report is used to assess blue crab stock status relative to female-specific management reference points.

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Stories:Blue crabs at sustainable levels

A new report on the Chesapeake Bay's blue crab population reveals a blue crab stock that has reached sustainable levels and is not overfished. A stable blue crab population means a more stable Bay economy, with watermen employed, restaurants stocked, and recreational crabbers—and crab-eaters—happy. The report, developed by the Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee (CBSAC) and released Friday by the Chesapeake Bay Program's Sustainable Fisheries Goal Implementation Team, highlights the health of a blue crab population with results showing a sustainable number of adult females and more juveniles than have been counted in the past two decades.

Pages:Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee (Blue Crab Workgroup)

The Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee seeks to achieve a sustainable Bay-wide blue crab fishery.

Stories:Clues of a growing blue crab

Imagine looking into the water and seeing a crab. Can you tell if its male or female? Young or old?

Stories:How can you tell the difference between a hardshell crab and a peeler crab?

The Chesapeake Bay blue crab is a fascinating species that goes through many differ stages in its life cycle. As invertebrates, the species has a hard exoskeleton that they have to molt (or shed) as they grow. Peeler crabs are actually just hardshell blue crabs that are showing signs of molting.

Stories:Bay scientists evaluate reasons for the blue crab’s population decrease

In recent years, the number of blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay has decreased. This trend has scientists, resource managers, watermen and people who enjoy eating blue crabs concerned—and eager to learn more about the situation. Blue crab population numbers are naturally highly variable.

Blue crab on the muddy floor of the Bay.

Stories:Denser grass beds hold more blue crabs

Denser grass beds in the Chesapeake Bay could boost the region’s blue crab population, according to a new report from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS). While researchers have long known that blue crabs use grass beds as sheltered nurseries and feeding grounds, this study is the first to show that denser, higher-quality grass beds hold more crabs than open beds where patches of mud or sand separate plants. These findings are based on fieldwork conducted between 2007 and 2008, during which scientists used a powerful vacuum to collect blue crabs from 104 sites along the shores of the lower Bay.

Stories:Adult female blue crab abundance rises 92 percent in 2016

The Chesapeake Bay’s adult female blue crab population has increased 92 percent since the population was surveyed last winter. While the current adult female blue crab abundance of 194 million is well above the overfishing threshold, it remains below the 215 million abundance target. Maryland and Virginia estimate the Bay’s blue crab population through an annual winter dredge survey.

Stories:Chesapeake Bay blue crab population remains healthy and sustainable, despite population decline

According to the 2020 Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab Advisory Report, the blue crab population in the Bay decreased from 594 million in 2019 to 405 million in 2020. While this marks an 31% decrease from the previous year, experts report the overall Chesapeake Bay blue crab population is not depleted or being overfished. The juvenile blue crab population—crabs that will grow to harvestable size this fall—was estimated to be 185 million, down from 324 million in 2019.

Stories:Maryland, Virginia Report Decreased Female Crab Harvest in 2008

Watermen in Maryland and Virginia caught fewer of the Bay’s female blue crabs in 2008, achieving the targeted reduction of 34 percent set by the governors of the two states last spring, according to preliminary harvest data released by both states. Virginia officials announced last month that the state’s watermen hauled in 9.4 million pounds of female crabs from the Bay -- a 37 percent decline from the average catch in 2004-2007. The total blue crab harvest fell by 29.5 percent in the Virginia portion of the Bay.

Stories:Bay Blue Crab Population Increases Significantly

Scientists estimate that a total of 400 million blue crabs overwintered in the Bay in 2008-2009, up from 280 million in 2007-2008, according to data from the latest Bay-wide winter dredge survey conducted by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. The overall abundance of adult crabs in 2008-2009 is estimated to be about 240 million crabs, slightly more than the interim target level of 200 million set by the Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee in early 2008. The increase in adult crab abundance is due primarily to a near doubling of adult females, coupled with a 50 percent increase in adult male abundance.

Stories:Photo Essay: The blue crab winter dredge survey completes its course

From December to March, assessing the health of the Chesapeake Bay’s blue crab population means long stints on the water for scientists from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS). Every year the blue crab winter dredge survey samples 1,500 randomly-chosen sites divided equally between Virginia and Maryland waters, in a partnership between VIMS and the Fisheries Service of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The data provides a bay-wide estimate of blue crab populations that helps agencies determine how many can be harvested without hampering the recovery of one of the Chesapeake Bay’s defining resources.

Stories:Blue Crab Advisory Report Recommends Continued Conservation Measures

A report recently released by the Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee (CBSAC) notes that the Chesapeake Bay’s blue crabs appear to be making a comeback, but recommends that the jurisdictions that manage the blue crab fishery continue to keep conservation measures in place. The 2010 Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab Advisory Report cites the success of recent measures to control blue crab harvest and emphasizes the need for these conservation efforts to continue into the future. The annual winter dredge survey completed in April estimated that there are 315 million harvestable adult crabs in the Chesapeake Bay, an increase of 41 percent from 2009.

Stories:2026 Blue Crab Advisory Report shows below-average population, but no overfishing

Blue crab survey results showing an increase in the Chesapeake Bay’s overall population were good news to seafood lovers and scientists alike. But experts continue to monitor and analyze data about this iconic species. In June, members of the Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee released their 2026 annual Blue Crab Advisory Report with recommendations on how to maintain the fishery.

Several blue crabs on the floor of a boat.

Stories:What do more underwater grasses mean for Chesapeake wildlife?

The news this summer has been dominated by the decline of the Chesapeake Bay blue crab. Back in May, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources announced that the Bay-wide Blue Crab Winter Dredge Survey, an annual effort to estimate the number of blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay, showed that the total abundance of blue crabs in the Bay had fallen from a population of 282 million in 2021 to 227 million in 2022—the lowest abundance observed since the survey began in 1990. This news also had a small glimmer of hope—the juvenile blue crab population had risen from 86 million in 2021 to 101 million in 2022.

Publications:Adoption Statement - Blue Crab Fishery Management Plan, Amendment

Last updated: May 9, 2025

The adoption statement was to implement the management strategies and actions recommended by this amendment to protect blue crab spawning potential, reduce exploitation, increase our biological understanding of blue crabs through monitoring, identify and protect blue crab habitat, and incorporate ecosystem processes.

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Videos:Could blue crabs weather a changing climate?

Last updated: August 26, 2025

Hillary Lane Glandon is a doctoral student at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, and she has spent five years studying the future of blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay as temperatures warm and ocean acidification makes an impact. Read our feature story about Glandon's research on blue crabs and climate change.

Stories:Year in review: Our most popular articles about the Bay in 2016

As 2016 draws to a close, we’re counting down some of our most-read articles of the year. Take a look back at our some of our most popular stories, from good news in Chesapeake Bay health to experts working on-the-ground to protect local waterways. #10: Adult female blue crab abundance rises 92 percent in 2016

Stories:Counting blue crabs with the winter dredge survey

Researchers from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) conduct the 2015-2016 blue crab winter dredge survey in the lower portion of the Chesapeake Bay on March 8, 2016. From December through March of each year, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and VIMS conduct the winter dredge survey in the Maryland and Virginia portions of the Bay, respectively. Between the two agencies, 1,500 sites are visited over the course of three and a half months.

Stories:Could blue crabs weather a changing climate?

At the Chesapeake Biological Lab (CBL) in Solomons, Maryland, dozens of blue crabs are traveling into the future. Not literally, of course—each of the crustaceans is safely nestled in one of the fish tanks that fill the lab where Hillary Lane Glandon conducts her work. But many of those blue crabs are experiencing the living conditions of the future, when climate change is predicted to significantly transform life in the Chesapeake Bay.