Planning to learn: Blue crab policymaking in the Chesapeake Bay

With harvest values in excess of $50 million, the blue crab (Callinectus sapidus) is the most important commercial fishery in the Chesapeake Bay. Since the late 1980s, Bay-wide policymaking for the blue crab has developed through two distinct processes - the Fishery Management Plan Workgroup and Bi-State Blue Crab Advisory Committee. This research examines these institutions and asks why the latter mechanism was more successful in answering key questions critical to managing blue crabs that remained unresolved under the traditional planning process. Using the rubric of policy learning and employing qualitative research methods, the research finds that keys to explaining variation in policy learning are: (1) the relative importance actors ascribe the process, (2) how the actors are engaged, and (3) how scientific conflict and uncertainty are managed. Understanding the processes by which policy relevant information is developed and incorporated into decision making is critical to effective environmental governance.