Background:

The Blue crab Callinectes sapidus (Rathbun, 1896) is an important fishery in socio-economic terms for the Mexican waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Despite its relevance, the blue crab has been little studied. Fisheries management generally involves decision-making based on the assessment of population size and dynamics.

Goals:

Determine the level of exploitation of the Blue crab resource in the Gulf of Mexico using official catch data from 1980 to 2018.

Methods:

The Catch-Maximum Sustainable Yield (C-MSY) method allows estimation of reference points that can be used for management of a fishery, including Catch at Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY), Biomass associated with MSY (BMSY) and Mortality associated with MSY (FMSY) using limited data.

Results:

The values of MSY and BMSY found by the C-MSY method were 16,491 t and 27,687 t, respectively. The FMSY value was 0.596, with a k value of 55,374 t, varying between 33,842 and 90,604 t. The highest viable r value of maximum net productivity was equal to 1.19.

Conclusions:

The results indicate that the blue crab (C. sapidus) fishery in the Gulf of Mexico is at healthy levels, but wich maximum levels of exploitation. To maintain the stock status, it is recommended that catch do not exceed the 14,842 t (0.9 MSY) and/or fishing mortality equal to 0.9 FMSY.