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Fans of Maryland blue crabs have known they have been difficult to find in recent years, and that many of the crabs at fish markets and restaurants are from North Carolina and Louisiana.

Now, North Carolina is considering restrictions that could drop the annual harvest by 21%.

According to the state’s Division of Marine Fisheries, North Carolina has historically provided 22% of the annual blue crabs catch since 1950. In 1996, watermen in North Carolina caught 65 million pounds of blue crab.

Since then, numbers have dropped dramatically. In 2022, an all-time low of 9 million pounds of blue crabs were taken, perhaps due to low demand during the COVID-19 pandemic. The yield improved in 2023, with 15 million hard crabs landed.

State regulators said North Carolina’s blue crabs have been overfished, while remaining the state’s most valuable fishery. The state is fourth in the nation for its blue crab haul, behind Louisiana, Maryland and Virginia.

What’s being considered in North Carolina

North Carolina is debating whether to amend its blue crab fishery management plan, which began in 2021, with the goal of rebuilding the stock to create a sustainable harvest by 2030.

“There is little evidence suggesting overfishing has ended,” according to the agency, in a statement, which said the bolstering measures “are not working as intended and are not meeting sustainability objectives.”

Among the proposed changes, North Carolina’s fisheries division is suggesting seasonal closures and trip limits. The tweaks would also aim to protect mature female blue crabs, including a bushel limit between June and December, as well as a ban on catching females between January and May.

Commercial crabbers have said issues other than overfishing could be contributing to the low numbers, including water quality, climate change, as well as the historical ups and downs of blue crab populations.

Critics of the restrictions said the data that the state has been using in its stock assessments is outdated.