Factors Affecting The Distribution And Abundance Of The Blue Crab In Chesapeake Bay

Authors

W. A. Van Engel, Virginia Institute of Marine Science

Files

Document Type

Book Chapter

Department/Program

Virginia Institute of Marine Science

Editors

S.K. Majumdar, L.W. Hall , Jr. and H.M. Austin

Publication Date

1987

Book Title

Contaminant Problems and Management of Living Chesapeake Bay Resources

Publisher

Pennsylvania Academy of Science

City

Easton, PA

Abstract

That environmental conditions in the Chesapeake Bay are optimal for the blue crab population is suggested by the fact that hard crab landings by Virginia and Maryland watermen accounted for almost 48% of the total of East and Gulf coast landings in 1985. Estimates of total mortality from the egg to the adult stage range from 0.999973 to 0.999996. Commercial fishing removes an additional 0.0000031 to 0.0000251, leaving 0.0000024 to 0.000001 as the rates of removal by other sources. Physical and chemical pollutants, predators, and plants and animals symbiotic with the blue crab are part of the environment that must be acknowledged as actual or potential factors affecting the rates of reproduction, growth and survival, and the behavior and distribution of the blue crab population. The impact of parasites and disease, predation, salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, heavy metals, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, and halogenated substances on the blue crab are described . .

ISBN

0960667075

Keywords

Estuarine ecology, water pollution, environmental policy, blue crab populations

Recommended Citation

Van Engel, W. A., "Factors Affecting The Distribution And Abundance Of The Blue Crab In Chesapeake Bay" (1987). VIMS Books and Book Chapters. 94.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/vimsbooks/94