The Baltimore Sun's Timothy B. Wheeler reports on the "perilously low population of blue crabs" in the Chesapeake Bay (article found here) and how government regulations are affecting local watermen. State officials have decreed that female crabs may not be caught after October 22nd. Mark Somers, featured in the article, is one of many facing hardships in order to protect the population.
From the article:
...Annual surveys have indicated the bay's crab population has been depressed for years and was in jeopardy of declining even more. So Maryland and Virginia agreed to reduce the harvest of female crabs by one-third. To rebuild the stock, officials said, it was necessary to curtail the catching of females so more of them could survive to bear their young."We're not in the business of putting watermen out of business," says Frank Dawson, an assistant secretary of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. "We're about providing a sustainable stock for a sustainable [seafood] industry." But sometimes, he says, "you don't do that without pain."
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