According to the 2008 landings report from the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) a five-year decline in blue crab harvests has come to an end as blue crab harvests increased last year by more than half. The report also states that the 2008 blue crab harvest is the best the state has had since 2003, increasing by 57 percent from 2007, contributing a 34 percent increase in total shellfish landings. It is informed that the division’s trip ticket program shows a total of 71.2 million pounds of seafood were sold last year and 32.9 million pounds were hard blue crabs.
The report revealed that the hard crab harvest contributed $25 million to the $87 million total dockside value of last year’s harvest, a $4 million increase over the 2007 total. Alan Bianchi, DMF commercial statistics program manager, opined while crab pot trips were down last year, the winter crab trawl fishery was very good. Kathy Mathis, owner and manager of Runner’s Seafood in Newport, said Tuesday the crabbers had a good season last year, as did the local scallop harvesters.
Kathy also said that for crabs, shellfish, inshore and offshore finfish, even trolling fishes, good or bad seasons are all due to cycles. Not all local fishermen did well last year, however. Tony Frost of Homer Smith Seafood in Beaufort said Wednesday his blue crab harvest was “terrible.” He also thinks the increased harvest on crabs is likely due to heavy regulations on other fisheries.
Bianchi said high fuel prices were likely the cause of the decline in shrimp and skimmer trawls in 2008. Other commercial landings that declined include yellowfin tuna harvests (down 59 percent), swordfish harvests (down 30 percent), bluefish harvests (down 17 percent) and total commercial finfish landings (down nine percent).
