Preliminary observations on the distribution and abundance of the stone crab, Menippe mercenaria, in South Carolina waters

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Author

Wenner, Elizabeth L.

Stokes, Al D.

Subject

Menippe mercenaria

Description

Collections of stone crabs were made at seven locations near Charleston, South Carolina from July - September 1982. In each location sampled, five commercial wire blue crab traps with two entrance holes and five wooden-lath stone crab traps, similar to those used in the Florida fishery, were fished for two and three days in paired sets. Twice as many stone crabs were collected in the blue crab trap as in the stone crab trap, and for six of the sites sampled, catches in the blue crab trap were significantly greater than those in the stone crab trap. No significant differences were found in the number of crabs per trap between two-day and three-day sets for either trap type. For all sites sampled, catch per unit of effort showed a decline when plotted against cumulative catch of the blue crab trap, suggesting that either sites were being fished out; that stone crabs were emigrating from these areas; or that they were no longer susceptible to active fishing because of a behavioral change.

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10827/11308

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Date

1983-04

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Date Accessioned	2013-09-26T16:27:46Z
Date Available	2013-09-26T16:27:46Z
dc.description	Collections of stone crabs were made at seven locations near Charleston, South Carolina from July - September 1982. In each location sampled, five commercial wire blue crab traps with two entrance holes and five wooden-lath stone crab traps, similar to those used in the Florida fishery, were fished for two and three days in paired sets. Twice as many stone crabs were collected in the blue crab trap as in the stone crab trap, and for six of the sites sampled, catches in the blue crab trap were significantly greater than those in the stone crab trap. No significant differences were found in the number of crabs per trap between two-day and three-day sets for either trap type. For all sites sampled, catch per unit of effort showed a decline when plotted against cumulative catch of the blue crab trap, suggesting that either sites were being fished out; that stone crabs were emigrating from these areas; or that they were no longer susceptible to active fishing because of a behavioral change.
Media Type	Document
Item Language	English
Publisher	South Carolina State Library
Digital Collection	South Carolina State Documents Depository
Rights	Copyright status undetermined. For more information contact, South Carolina State Library, 1500 Senate Street, Columbia, South Carolina 29201.
Type	Text
Digitization Specifications	This South Carolina State Document was either saved from a document available publicly online in PDF format or converted to PDF using Adobe Acrobat X Professional.
dc.coverage.spatial	Charleston County (S.C.)