APPENDIX III APPENDIX III 
believe that red crab resources in the DeSoto Canyon off the 
west coast of Florida might support a marginally profitable 
fishery. The market for red crab would not differ from that 
of blue crab as the product forms are the same. 
STATUS OF FISHERY 
Ly 
Current harvest— 
The Atlantic blue crab landings in 1973 were 91.7 mil- 
lion pounds, a decrease from the 1972 landings of 108.5 mil- 
lion pounds; the value increased from $11.4 million to $13.1 
million. The Gulf States blue crab catch in 1974 was 47.9 
million pounds, up from the 1973 catch of 47.5 million pounds. 
The 1974 catch was valued at $6.4 million, as compared to 
the 1973 catch value of $6.0 million. 
Both the Atlantic and gulf blue crab harvests have 
fluctuated widely over the years. These fluctuations appear 
to be independent of the number of crabs which spawn, but 
the reasons for variations are not known. Environmental con- 
ditions and fishing pressures have been suggested as causal 
HACE OMS Is 
In the ogulf, the crab harvest normally decreases if 
shrimp are plentiful and shrimp prices are good. More fisher- 
men would enter the shrimp fishery during this time. 
The total, Pacific crab catch an) 1975. was) 162.2) milion 
pounds, worth $61.5 million; this was 15.5 million pounds 
less than the 1974 catch, but the value was $734,000 greater 
than the 1974 value. 
The 1975 king crab catch, up 3 percent from 1974, was 
the highest since 1968. The rise in the king crab catch since 
1970 seems to indicate that the Alaska resource is recovering 
from overfishing which occurred in past years. 
The tanner crab fishery showed a 28-percent catch de- 
crease an 1975 from the 1974 record catch of 64.2 million 
pounds. The tanner crab fishery had developed rapidly in the 
last 7 years from 3.2 million pounds in 1968 to the record 
1974 catch before dropping back to 46.2 million pounds in 
1975. The decrease was mainly caused by poor market conditions 
and high inventories in cold storage. Also, a price dispute 
between fishermen and buyers almost halted tanner crab fish- 
ing during part of the 1975 fishing season. 
1/the latest data available was used in all cases. 
65 
