The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) released their 2015 Blue Crab Winter Dredge Survey results today, April 27, showing higher levels of spawning-age females. The females were shown to be 101 million in number, an increase from last year, when adult females were on the "depleted" list. This number is still below peak results from 2010 and 2011, and below the target average of 215 million. However, juvenile crabs have increased 35% since 2014 and doubled since 2013. This increase is somewhat of a surprise, considering the colder than average temperatures over the winter. The DNR estimates that 19 percent of the adult crab population perished in the cold temperatures. Currently, the number of juvenile crabs stands at roughly 269 million, just above the 26-year average of 261 million. This means that the crabbing harvest remains at a safe level for the seventh consecutive year. "If we maintain exploitation rates close to the target, the crab population will continue to increase over the long term," University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Chesapeake Biological Laboratory professor Tom Miller said. The crab population will next be analyzed in the 2015 Blue Crab Advisory Report, presented by the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee and released later this summer. The Maryland DNR and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science have conducted the primary assessment of the Bay's blue crab population annually since 1990. The survey employs crab dredges to sample at 1,500 sites throughout the Chesapeake Bay from December through March. Sampling during winter, when blue crabs are usually buried in the mud and stationary, allows scientists to develop, with good precision, estimates of the number of crabs present in the Bay. For more information and to read the full results of the survey, click here.