Proposed Blue Crab Regulations by MFC

Blue Crab Fact Sheet - November 13, 2025

What is being proposed? Currently, the NC Marine Fisheries Commission (MFC) is considering blue crab harvest reductions that will affect consumers' access to local crab meat.  Managers are proposing new bushel limits and a ban on crab trawling, which will significantly impact the industry. Here are blue crab facts: 

• Blue crabs are sustainably managed in North Carolina under the Blue Crab Fisheries Management Plan which is updated every five years.

• The proposed measures, which would significantly reduce the amount of blue crabs that can be harvested, has been drafted without a current population status of blue crabs; a scientifically accepted stock assessment has yet to be conducted.

• Scientific expertise calls for a new benchmark population assessment prior to additional regulatory changes.  

• Blue crab landings have been stable or shown slight increases in recent years and fishing effort has declined.

• A recent study by NC State scientists (Voigt et al. 2025) found no evidence that the fishery is harvesting too many reproducing females (recruitment overfishing), unlike what is assumed in the Blue Crab FMP Amendment.

• There has been limited stakeholder input, and no stakeholder consensus, on the new proposed measures as required by the Fisheries Reform Act of 1997.

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• Blue crabs support North Carolina’s most important fishery.  They are the state's #1 fishery by pounds landed, revenue, and jobs.  

• Crab pots account for 95% + of the harvested amount in NC.

• North Carolina is one of the top three states in the USA in blue crab harvest, and is an important supplier for neighboring states such as Maryland. 

• The blue crab fishery supports more than 1,200 jobs and hundreds of small, family-owned operations in economically distressed coastal counties such as Pamlico, Chowan, and Hyde. 

• Blue crabs, along with shrimp, provide the foundation for the NC seafood supply chain; without a healthy crab fishery, picking houses, crab pot manufacturers, and other associated businesses would be negatively affected or close altogether.

• Blue crabs are in high demand by consumers, whether steamed whole with seasoning, made into crab cakes or devil crabs, or served as soft crabs after molting their shells.

• There are about a dozen processing houses located in North Carolina’s coastal communities providing jobs for people skilled in picking out the meat. The importation of much cheaper foreign crab meat has competed with the domestic blue crab market.

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