Striped bass may regulate the blue crab population in Chesapeake Bay by preying on juveniles. Hence, the recovery of the striped bass fishery may be causing a decline in blue crab abundance. We examined a corollary of this hypothesis: an expected inverse correlation between striped bass and blue crab abundance. Abundance indices based on the Virginia striped bass young-of-the-year beach seine survey were constructed for the stock, ages 1 -8, and for the Virginia resident component of the stock,

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... ages 1 -5. Fishery-independent, pound net catch-per-unit-effort data for the fall and spring were also used as indices of adult striped bass abundance in the Rappahannock River, Virginia. Abundance indices for juvenile blue crabs were constructed based on trawl survey data collected in the three main tributaries to the lower half of the Chesapeake Bay, the James, York and Rappahannock Rivers. These indices are geometric means weighted by stratum areas, with two strata per river. Crab abundance in the fall correlated positively with predicted Virginia resident striped bass abundance. Crab abundance in the spring did not' correlate with any measure of striped bass abundance, nor did fall Rappahannock River crab abundance correlate with the fall Rappahannock River pound net index. Thus, these data do not support the hypothesis that striped bass abundance and blue crab abundance are inversely related. Therefore, striped bass do not appear to regulate blue crab population dynamics in the Virginia portion of the Chesapeake Bay.