PHILLIPS TO GIVE $300,000, FUND-RAISE FOR UMBI CRAB STUDY
Maryland Watermen Also To Help Form Foundation, Lend Expertise

BALTIMORE, Md.--Phillips Foods and Seafood Restaurants have joined the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute's (UMBI) Center of Marine Biotechnology (COMB) to aid in fundamental research and fundraising on Maryland blue crabs and its Chesapeake Bay habitat.

The fund-raising program, Crab Restoration And the Bay (C.R.A.B.), has the potential to help preserve both the populations and habitats of the blue crab. Stephen Phillips, third generation waterman and CEO of Phillips Foods and Seafood Restaurants, has committed more than $300,000 to C.R.A.B., led by COMB Director Yonathan Zohar, Ph.D., through a three-year grant and fundraising initiatives on behalf of Phillips' company's seven restaurants along the Eastern Seaboard.

"My family has been working the waters of the Chesapeake Bay for more than 100 years. In light of the diminishing blue crab harvest in past seasons, I want to do all I can to ensure the future of the blue crab and preserve my heritage," believes Mr. Phillips. "While Phillips commissioned an Australian crab scientist to study crab aquaculture in Southeast Asia, I still knew preserving the blue crab's natural habitat in the Chesapeake Bay and understanding the crab's lifestyle was a more crucial initiative. The synergy with similar research at UMBI's Center of Marine Biotechnologyproved to be a perfect fit."

Given the extensive experience of COMB faculty in studying the finfish and shellfish of the Chesapeake Bay, C.R.A.B. is aimed at applying the tools of molecular genetics and biotechnology to studying and better understanding the fundamental processes involved in the Chesapeake Bay blue crab, Callinectes sapidus, life cycle. Based on this new understanding, strategies and tools will be developed to enhance and better manage blue crab populations in the Chesapeake Bay and ultimately increase the harvests.

C.R.A.B. will contribute to UMBI research efforts to build on knowledge gained by Japanese, Australian and European scientists in their studies of crab species related to the Maryland blue. "It is really surprising how little is known about the basic biology of the blue crab in view of its importance to the Maryland economy and in light of the alarming decline in its harvests," says Zohar. "The physiological and molecular processes that regulate reproduction, early development, molting, growth, immune protection and behavior are all poorly understood."

In the Japanese Seto Inland Sea, fisheries of the swimming crab, a close relative of the blue crab, collapsed in the 1960's. However, Zohar notes that "an amply funded, integrated stock enhancement and habitat research program" led to the rebounding of the crab fishery.

"As marine biologists, we recognize that successful management of blue crab resources and reversal of the decline in harvests requires a multidisciplinary approach. While our research will focus on the basic biology of the life cycle and the development of hatchery technologies, we will collaborate with scientific colleagues to address population biology, habitat restoration and basic biology of the blue crab," explains Zohar.

COMB is expanding its partnership in cooperating with a multidisciplinary team that so far includes Phillips' world-renowned crab scientist Clive Keenan, Anson Hines of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) and the Maryland Watermen's Association.

Also, many scientists, involved in similar blue crab research and restoration programs, have recently approached COMB about developing federally supported collaborative research in blue crab biology and enhancement research. "The sincerest compliment to any scientist is an interest in your work from colleagues who are involved in projects around the world," states University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute President Jennie C. Hunter-Cevera, Ph.D.

"The proactive nature of C.R.A.B. is based upon the vision of Steve Phillips and his family," says Hunter-Cevera. "He brought together the pieces of this research puzzle and is enabling UMBI to pave the way for designing approaches that efficiently control the blue crab's early life cycle and lead to reliable hatchery technologies and crablet production for use in stock enhancement programs."

The crab harvest in the Chesapeake Bay is critically important to both Maryland's economy and tourism. Nearly 7,000 full-time watermen rely on the crab harvest each year for their jobs. Another 1,200 workers in Maryland's 44 processing plants depend on the annual crab harvest, according to the Maryland Watermen's Association (MWA).

"The blue crab harvest is a large portion of the commercial watermen's income, as well as the income the shoreside support facilities, such as the crab picking houses, the ice houses, basket makers refrigerated trucks and restaurants," explains MWA President Larry Simns. "The time is now for us to stop managing the blue crab fishery simply by cutting back on the harvest levels and use the scientific information available to understand as much as we can about how the crab reproduces and how long it lives. The information we gather from research and development projects such as C.R.A.B. will benefit all aspects of the industry," continues Simms, "as we find ways to enhance the population of blue crabs in the bay and its tributaries" He adds that the work at COMB benefit the working watermen and the related industries which support families and communities.

COMB initiated crab studies in the fall of 2000. While difficult to collect mated females during the winter, COMB and SERC managed to capture female crabs and produce off-season larval crabs in captivity via re-circulating, closed-loop tank systems. By manipulating the day-length periods and other environmental conditions, several crabs generated fully developed ovaries and produced fertilized eggs within two months of their collection from the Chesapeake Bay, six months ahead of their natural spawning time.

As Phillips explains, "this is the first time that Chesapeake Bay blue crabs have been produced out of season in environmentally contained, re-circulating, aquaculture systems. This out-of-season spawning of blue crab females and production of thousands of crablets are breakthroughs in blue crab hatchery research. What Dr. Zohar and his team have accomplished thus far gives me great hope for the future generations of watermen."

"The crab research in the next three to five years will be challenging," says Zohar. He said the research would first focus on a better understanding of the molecular, hormonal, biochemical and physiological processes of reproduction, early development, molting, growth, immune protection and aggression. COMB scientists also need to perfect technologies to spawn the crabs in captivity, explains Zohar. They will grow larvae intensely into high-quality, disease-free crablets, then develop biomarkers in order to track them once released into the Bay. The work will then turn to establishing a commercial prototype blue crab hatchery and nursery for stock enhancement in the Bay. The plan is to release the juvenile crabs at their naturally optimal times and condition, then study their fate. The team plans to work with aquatic plant biologists, population dynamics experts, environmental engineers, watermen and ecologists to integrate our studies with blue crab habitat restoration and resource management efforts in the Chesapeake Bay.

Headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland-based Phillips Foods and Seafood Restaurants has been a privately held family business since the early 1900s. Today, the company, borne from a family-owned Eastern Shore processing plant, has grown to seven high-volume seafood restaurants, a manufacturing plant in Baltimore, six regional sales offices across the United States and Europe and ten crab and seafood processing facilities worldwide.