Originally Posted By: Myassisdragon
Habitat, pollution, and now possibly the tidal wave of commercial pots have nearly done ‘em in eh ?

Not sure which one could take the numbers down in as little as 24-36 months like they seem to have fallen........



If you have an onset of conditions adverse to successful spawns (meaning fewer or no recruitment) and continue to harvest the existing legal (spawning size) crab ultimately you have insufficient males. Couple that with females aging out of the reproductive group and ultimately you see a fast drop off in population.

In short, the 3-S management strategy (size, sex and season) has its limitations and that assumes that everyone is playing by the rules.
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