Saving Seafood

Seagrass swap could reshape Chesapeake Bay food web

September 5, 2025 — The following story originally appeared on the website for W&M’s Batten School & VIMS. – Ed.

Beneath the surface of the Chesapeake Bay, a subtle but dramatic shift is taking place as eelgrass gives way to its warmer-water relative, widgeon grass. A new study from researchers at William & Mary’s Batten School & VIMS shows that this seagrass swap could have ecological impacts across the Bay’s food webs, fisheries and ecosystem functions.

Published in Marine Ecology Progress Series, the study reveals that while both seagrass species offer valuable habitat, they support marine life in very different ways. The researchers estimate that the continued shift from eelgrass to widgeon grass could lead to a 63% reduction in the total quantity of invertebrate biomass living in seagrass meadows in the bay by 2060.

“Several factors including water quality, rising temperatures and human development are threatening eelgrass in the Chesapeake Bay. In its place, particularly in the middle bay, widgeon grass has expanded due to its ability to tolerate warmer, more variable conditions,” said Associate Professor Chris Patrick, who is also director of the Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV) Monitoring & Restoration Program at the Batten School of Coastal & Marine Sciences & VIMS. “However, the two grasses provide structurally distinct habitats that shape the animals living within.”

Read the full article at W&M’s News

VIRGINIA: Stone crabs are calling Virginia waters home — for the first time ever

August 28, 2025 — The Chesapeake Bay might have a new resident, thanks to warming waters and successful habitat restoration.

Blue crabs are the typical catch in local waters. But crabbers on the bay have reported adult stone crabs in their pots on Willoughby Spit, marking the first time the species has been spotted growing in Hampton Roads.

The find could mark an exciting addition to the crab industry in the Chesapeake Bay, according to Rom Lipcius, a researcher and professor at William & Mary’s Batten School at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

Read the full article at The Virginian-Pilot

MARYLAND: Maryland’s blue crabs — and its crabbers — are having a rough season

July 15, 2025 — In Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay, two populations are under threat: the iconic blue crab and the crabbers whose livelihoods have depended on this fishery for hundreds of years.

This season, survey counts of the iconic crustaceans hit one of their lowest points on record. That has driven up costs at restaurants at a time when disposable income is scarce and inflation is driving up costs of food and other consumer goods.

Luke McFadden, 29, who has been crabbing since he was 18, says he’s seen a rough start to the season.

“We’re trying to offer them to the consumers as cheaply as possible, being able to cover our cost,” he said. “But I get it, you know, it’s tough out there.”

At the family-run crab house, Pit Boys, in Annapolis, a dozen crabs will cost customers between $75 and $140, depending on size, according to seafood manager Charlie George. That’s “a lot higher” than previous years, an effect he and others attributed to fewer crabs in the bay.

According to the 2025 blue crab advisory report, the total blue crab population has dropped to an estimated 238 million, down from 317 million last year. That’s the second-lowest level since the annual winter dredge survey began in 1990.

A prized southern crustacean could be Maine’s newest fishery

May 31, 2022 — The appearance of blue crab in Maine over the past couple years has researchers wondering if the prized southern crustacean is making a new home up north.

Known for their bright blue claws, blue crabs are one of the most valuable commercial fisheries in the Chesapeake Bay. While not unheard of, sightings in Maine are rare, and the species historically does stray much further than Massachusetts.

But scientists in southern Maine say they’ve found dozens of blue crabs in the salt marshes off Wells, prompting them to investigate if the species is extending its habitat north as the Gulf of Maine warms.

If it is, there’s potential for a new fishery in Maine, though there is also tremendous uncertainty around how the highly predatory crab would interact with local species, including the lobster — the bread and butter of Maine’s fishing fleet.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

 

Crab Supply Pricing Out Delaware Restaurants as Some Crabbers Find Success Another Way

June 17, 2021 — For many Delaware families, summer means picnic tables full of steamed blue claw crabs or crab cake dinners at a favorite restaurant. But this summer, those same crabs will cost much higher prices, if you can find them at all while dining out.

Mrs. Robino’s, an Italian restaurant in Wilmington, for example, has temporarily cancelled their popular Thursday crab nights because of problems getting enough crab meat and the cost with the crab they can get their hands on.

“Now, it’s to the point where it’s just so expensive, it’s like tripled in price just about,” Andrea Wakefield of Mrs. Robino’s said.

Two issues are playing havoc with blue crab in Delaware: supply chain disruptions still upending shipping of crabs from places like Louisiana and North Carolina, where the crabs are caught in the winter months; and more locally, an inability to find crabbing manpower in the Chesapeake Bay region of Maryland and Delaware. The Chesapeake Bay crabbing industry also got off to a slow start this year due to lower numbers of adult crabs, but experts say that it isn’t a dire situation longterm.

The problems have combined to create a shortage and high prices for restaurants.

Read the full story at NBC 10

MARYLAND: Land-based salmon farm proposed for Chesapeake’s Eastern Shore

September 3, 2020 — The Chesapeake Bay is known to many for the seafood it produces: blue crabs, oysters and striped bass.

In a few years, though, the Bay region could become a major producer of an even more popular seafood that doesn’t come from the Chesapeake. A Norwegian company, AquaCon, has unveiled plans to raise salmon on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

AquaCon executives intend to build a $300 million indoor salmon farm on the outskirts of Federalsburg in Caroline County. By 2024, they aim to harvest 3 million fish a year weighing 14,000 metric tons — an amount on par with Maryland’s annual commercial crab catch.

If that goes as planned, the company expects to build two more land-based salmon farms on the Shore over the next six or seven years, bringing production up to 42,000 tons annually. That’s more than the Baywide landings of any fish or shellfish, except for menhaden, and more valuable commercially.

AquaCon’s announcement comes amid a rush by mostly European aquaculture companies to supply Americans with farmed salmon. Another Norwegian company is preparing for its first full harvest later this year from a facility south of Miami, and plans have been announced to build big indoor salmon farms in Maine and on the West Coast. Two small U.S.-based salmon operations in the Midwest also are moving to expand production.

Read the full story at the Bay Journal

University of Maryland receives $300,000 for blue crab research

July 31, 2020 — U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen and Congressman Steny H. Hoyer, all D-Md., July 27 announced $299,963 in federal funding for the University of Maryland, College Park for research into a new processing technology that could enhance the competitiveness of the domestic blue crab industry. The funding comes from the 2020 Saltonstall-Kennedy Competitive Grants Program through the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration.

“Few things are as iconic as the Chesapeake Bay blue crab, and its harvest is a cornerstone of Maryland’s local economies. This grant will expand the competitiveness of domestically produced crab meat in the face of intense foreign competition, and will help unlock new markets for an important Maryland industry,” said the lawmakers.

The U.S. blue crab industry has faced increasing competition from imported products, especially Venezuelan fresh pre-cooked crab, which has a longer shelf life. This has resulted in a major loss of market share for the Maryland seafood industry. This new high-pressure processing technology will extend shelf life of domestic crab products, while improving food safety and expanding market strategies among the seafood industry.

Read the full story at the Dorchester Star

Chesapeake Bay’s blue crab populations are healthy, report finds

July 6, 2020 — The bay’s blue crabs aren’t being over-harvested and the population isn’t depleted, which means there’s no need for significant changes in how many watermen catch, the Chesapeake Bay Program’s annual Blue Crab Advisory Report said.

Although crab numbers declined from 594 million last year to 405 million this year, that’s in line with natural variation, according to the report, which was released Wednesday.

At that level, there’s no need for significant change in the rules the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, or its counterparts in Maryland and the Potomac River, set for when and how watermen catch crabs, the report noted.

The key issue for those regulators, and the Bay program, is that the stock of female crabs remains robust. If too many are harvested when they could be reproducing, the overall population could crash, as happened in the late 1990s.

While the current count of female crabs declined by 26% from last year’s total, to 141 million, that’s well above the 70 million minimum fisheries scientists say is needed to maintain the population of crabs, the report noted.

Read the full story at The Virginian-Pilot

NORTH CAROLINA: Three new Sea Grant projects could have local impact

February 3, 2020 — As of Feb. 1, a new batch of research projects are underway through the N.C. Sea Grant. The research and education organization, headquartered at N.C. State in Raleigh, facilitates funding for projects up and down the coast, and considers those that will be of importance to the whole state, said Katie Mosher, spokeswoman for N.C. SeaGrant.

Among the ten new projects for 2020-2022, a few could have special importance to Southeastern North Carolina. Here are some of the questions that researchers are trying to answer.

Blue Crabs and Climate

Jessie Jarvis, a coastal plant ecologist at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, is the lead researcher taking a closer look at one way that North Carolina, which is a transition zone between temperate and tropical climates, could be affected by changing temperatures. Jarvis’ research interests include underwater grasses, or submerged aquatic vegetation. It’s predicted that subtropical vegetation species will increase their range into local waters, and the potential impacts are unknown, especially for important species such as blue crabs. She plans to look at different vegetation meadow types and how they may impact different species, which could inform how these fisheries are managed and conserved.

Read the full story at Star News

New funding to study microplastic pollution effect on Delaware Bay blue crabs

November 6, 2019 — The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is often held up as the poster child for ocean pollution. And while the collection of trash collecting in the Pacific Ocean certainly deserves attention, researchers at the University of Delaware are concerned about a smaller source of pollution, much smaller.

Through its marine debris program, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is giving the university a $325,000 grant to study the impact of microplastics on blue crab populations near the Delaware Bay. Microplastics are defined as pieces of plastic less than five millimeters in length, or smaller than a pencil eraser. According to NOAA, some microplastics are microbeads, fibers or pellets that come from cosmetics or personal care products, for instance. They can also come from larger pieces of plastic that split apart and break down after exposure to the sun.

It’s estimated that there’s about five trillion tons of marine debris in our oceans and plastics are 90% of that, said UD College of Earth, Ocean and Environment Dean Estella Atekwana. “This grant is really timely so we can advance our understanding of what plastics do to our marine ecosystems,” she said.

Read the full story at WHYY