Blue crab

The status of blue swimming crab stocks in the Indo-West Pacific is poor. Good data are lacking for many areas, but where assessments are available, many stocks are found to be fully exploited or overfished. Current fishing pressure is unsustainable across large parts of the species’ range.

Hand collection with diving equipment has little bycatch, but vulnerable (ETP) species such as seahorses may be caught. Discards are very limited and the catch consists almost entirely of target species. Hand collection causes no damage to the seabed and the risk of lost fishing gear is low. The effects of removing large quantities of crabs on the ecosystem are insufficiently known.

Management is considered insufficiently effective. Many countries have minimum size limits and protect egg-bearing females, but enforcement is often inadequate. There are also no effective measures to limit seahorse bycatch and overfishing.

The status of blue swimming crab stocks in the Indo-West Pacific is poor. Good data are lacking for many areas, but where assessments are available, many stocks are found to be fully exploited or overfished. Current fishing pressure is unsustainable across large parts of the species’ range.

Fishing with both crab pots and anchored gillnets, as well as other fishing methods, has negative impacts on the ecosystem. Anchored gillnets have bycatch of vulnerable (ETP) species, such as sharks, sea turtles and dugongs (sea cows). Crab pots have less bycatch of vulnerable species, but there is also insufficient data on this. Both fisheries catch large numbers of non-target species and juvenile crabs. Overfishing of blue swimming crab also reduces food availability for other species. The impact on the seabed is limited to moderate, but lost fishing gear remains a significant problem.

Management is considered insufficiently effective. Many countries have minimum size limits and protect egg-bearing females, but enforcement is often inadequate. There are also no effective measures to limit bycatch, lost fishing gear and overfishing. FIPs have been initiated for some fisheries, but these are not yet sufficient to consider the fishery sustainable.