NORTH AMERICAN CRAB FISHERIES: REGULATIONS 

 AND THEIR RATIONALES 



R. J. Milleri 



ABSTRACT 



Because of similarities in species' life histories, fishing and processing methods, economics of fishing 

 and processing, and political systems among jurisdictions, managers of North American crab fisheries 

 share many common problems. This review is presented to suggest options to those delegated the 

 responsibility for managing crab fisheries. 



The review is organized by fishery and management problems. Six fisheries in 12 government 

 jurisdictions are included. Regulations are grouped into management problems of 1) conservation, 2) 

 allocation of landings among commercial fishermen, 3) stability of landings, 4) conflict over grounds or 

 resource, 5) processing economics, and 6) administration. A final section discusses procedures in eight 

 jurisdictions by which public or government representatives may effect changes in regulations. 



If the rationale for each regulation (or at least each new one) and the name of the group requesting it 

 are appended to copies distributed to users, more informed discussion of management problems and 

 more reasoned support for regulations may result. 



Problems of managing crab fisheries change as 

 established fisheries develop and new fisheries 

 emerge. Because of similarities in species' life 

 histories, fishing and processing methods, eco- 

 nomics of fishing and processing, and political 

 systems within which both government employees 

 and fishing industries must operate, managers of 

 North American crab fisheries share many com- 

 mon problems. This review of North American 

 crab fishery regulations and their rationales is 

 presented to suggest options to those delegated 

 the responsibility for managing crab fisheries. 

 While these regulations may not be optimum 

 according to either biological or economic criteria, 

 they have met the very demanding test of political 

 feasibility. 



This review is organized by fishery and man- 

 agement problems. The classification of man- 

 agement problems is necessarily arbitrary. Jus- 

 tifications for a given regulation may make it 

 applicable to more than one problem in the same 

 governmental jurisdiction or applicable to differ- 

 ent problems in different jurisdictions. The clas- 

 sification is an attempt to make the presentation 

 more user-oriented, as a search for regulations is 

 commonly prompted by a particular management 

 problem. A final section contains procedures for 

 eight jurisdictions whereby either public or 



'Department of the Environment, Fisheries, and Marine 

 Service Biological Station, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, 

 AIC lAl. 



government representatives may recommend 

 changes in regulations. 



METHODS 



Information on regulations and their rationales 

 was provided by government biologists and re- 

 source managers in interviews on the west coast 

 and in correspondence on the east coast. Table 1 

 lists these contacts and their agencies. 



The regulations are not a complete set for any 

 jurisdiction but do represent a large sample of the 

 types of controls in force. Some regulations are 

 omitted because I judged them not to be of general 

 application or my contacts did not know their 

 rationales; the latter is understandable consider- 

 ing the time period over which most sets of 

 regulations evolved. Sampling was least complete 

 for the blue crab fishery. There are 16 States with 

 regulations governing this fishery and several 

 were not included because of the similarity among 

 their regulations. 



I have not commented on the success of en- 

 forcement of regulations as this would have 

 required firsthand knowledge of each fishery or 

 extensive field interviews with enforcement 

 oflScers and fishery participants. 



The management problems into which regula- 

 tions have been grouped are listed and defined 

 below. 



Conservation: to prevent resource waste, 



Manu.script accepted March 1976. 



FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 74, NO. 3, 1976. 



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