UMD Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

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    Mark-Recapture Assessment of the Recreational Blue Crab (Callinectes sapidus) Harvest in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland
    (2016) Semmler, Robert Semmler; Reaka, Marjorie L; Hines, Anson H; Marine-Estuarine-Environmental Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    In Maryland, commercial blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) harvests are monitored through mandatory, annual harvest reporting, but no monitoring exists for recreational fishers. This study used a large-scale mark-recapture program to assess relative exploitation between the recreational and commercial fishing sectors in 15 harvest reporting areas of Maryland, then incorporated movement information and extrapolated reported commercial harvest data to generate statewide estimates of recreational harvest. Results indicate spatial variation in recreational fishing, with a majority of recreational harvests coming from tributaries of the Western Shore and the Wye and Miles Rivers on the Eastern Shore. Statewide, recreational harvest has remained 8% as large as commercial harvest despite management changes in 2008, and remains a larger proportion (12.8%) of male commercial harvest. In addition, this study provides detailed spatial information on recreational harvest and the first information on rates of exchange of male crabs among harvest reporting areas.