McLean, VA – The Seafood Industry Research Fund has sponsored a study reviewing best practices for blue swimming crab stock enhancement. Commissioned to assist the NFI Crab Council in formulating effective policies for bolstering blue swimming crab populations in South East Asia, the study provides a history of enhancement work, a survey of existing methods and recommendations specific to crab fisheries.
In “Stock Enhancement: Strategic Approach for the Blue Swimmer Crab in SE Asia,” co-authors Drs. Anson H. Hines and Yonathan Zohar describe enhancement work as one important component of a fisheries improvement regime. Enhancement, or the use of hatchery-reared organisms to increase fishery abundance in the wild, is, as the study posits, most successful when used to increase a spawning stock’s reproductive potential over a period of time in conjunction with robust fishery management.
“Many tools are required to set a fishery on a path for sustainability,” said Crab Council Chairman Brendan Sweeny. “While we recognize that strong fisheries management policies are the foundation of a sustainable fishery, this SIRF-sponsored study has helped clarify the council’s position on one of those tools. We look forward to incorporating the kind of science based enhancement approach suggested by the study into our work for the blue swimming crab resource. The paper will really serve as a seminal communications tool in helping people understand that the old put-and-take enhancement method does not work for crab. But a focus on brood stock might. Further, the paper is helping to guide the Crab Council’s strategic direction of enhancement practices.”
Drs. Anson H. Hines and Yonathan Zohar presented their paper to a full council meeting earlier in the month during the Seafood Expo North America. An extended question and answer session after the meeting allowed council members to formulate a strategy for how enhancement might work within their Southeast Asian sponsored fisheries.
“SIRF, like the NFI Crab Council, is interested in investing in a better seafood industry,” said SIRF Chairman Russ Mentzer. “SIRF supports the council’s enhancement research because of its dual-benefits to the blue swimming crab fishery’s long-term health and value.”
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The Seafood Industry Research Fund (SIRF) was established in 1964 to fund research grants to colleges, universities and other institutions for research related to the seafood industry and the consumers of its products. SIRF is supported entirely by voluntary contributions from individuals and companies in and related to the seafood industry
Source: The Seafood Industry Research Fund (SIRF)