Specifications include, but are not limited to: The State is issuing this solicitation for the purposes of providing support for the Winter Dredge Survey. The Winter Dredge Survey is the only bay-wide fishery independent effort to estimate the number of blue crabs living in the Chesapeake Bay. The winter dredge survey produces information that is essential for the management of the species, such as an estimate of the number of crabs over-wintering in the bay and the number of young crabs entering the population each year. Also calculated is the estimated number of females that could spawn within the year, which is an important indicator of future spawning potential. Estimating the total number of crabs living in the bay allows the Department to calculate the percentage of the crab population that is removed by harvest each year.
