How Many Blue Crabs Live in the Chesapeake Bay?
Chesapeake Bay scientists use the annual Bay-wide winter dredge survey as their main tool to estimate how many blue crabs are living in the Bay. According to the 2009 winter dredge survey, which took place just before the start of the 2009 commercial crab season, 418 million crabs are estimated to be living in the Chesapeake Bay. The winter dredge survey also estimates the number of adult (age 1 or older) blue crabs in the Bay. In 2009, 223 million adults blue crabs were estimated to be living in the Bay. This is a 70 percent increase from 131 million adult crabs in 2008 and the first time since 1993 that adult blue crab abundance exceeded the interim goal of 200 million crabs. However, the number of juvenile (less than one year old) blue crabs was 179 million, still well below the historical average of 259 million juvenile crabs.
