Living with the crab

Global warming will take care of that, Drew.

Hey, is Virginia going to catch all those crabs MD lets pass through? Who's putting pressure on the VA DNR?

I feel for this waterman, I really do. But we need to restrict the crabbing. If it would have been done 20years ago, there wouldn't be the problems that exist now. I think Maryland is finally getting the right regulations for crabs ( and trust me I love my crabs). By the way, why are the Island People allowing someone from mexico to come and work 8months out of the year and then return back to mexico? I thought it was tradition on the ISLAND? that doesn't seem right to me.

When the last one of the last species in the Bay is caught, will someone please turn off the light!

I thought the title was referring to something else :-)

Haha ha........

I feel for the crabbers that feel they're livelihood will be killed off, but if they are allowed to continue taking all they can catch then there won't be any crabs left to sustain their businesses. If they take the temporary hit now then there will be plenty of crabs for everybody in a few years.

Let's play a game. It's called show us your tax returns. It's common knowledge that today's crabbers are making in excess of $100k net annually from their operations. And this is the income they "report".
It's precisely their gluttony for crab$ that have gotten us to this point.
I, for one, won't be shedding a tear for them!

Gloom and doom is what the waterman say about restrictions on crabs. If they do not catch a lot then charge more for crabs. It's supply and demand. If consumers love their crabs, then they will pay the going rate. If the waterman would have put restrictions on females years ago, maybe this shortage would not of happened. I personnally think the waterman should pay more for their liscense because they are using a free god given resource that belongs to all Marylanders.

Good to see that the comments all follow roughly the same vein. Blatant self-interest rarely makes for good public policy, and that is certainly the case here. One fellow in the video says he wants to make sure his grandkids know what a crab looks like; well, if he keeps harvesting like there is no tomorrow, that won't happen.

These measures, and the ones that will come in the future, will ensure that even more people can earn a living on the bay in the future. While we might hurt the wallets of a few today, we will fill the wallets and belly's of many tomorrow. That is the trade-off for a sustainable future. The Bay is a public estuary, and no one is guaranteed profit from plying it's waters.

...I knew it was a dying business," Powley said. "But no way did I think that it would be the state that would destroy it."

The state didn't destroy it. Over harvesting and other environmental situations have. If nothing is done to save the crab population you will still be out of business and there will be no crabs. This way we may be able to save the crabs and return the population to numbers that will allow for less strict regulations. I don't think the state has gone far enough to responsibly manage the crab population.

"I didn't want my son to get into this business because I knew it was a dying business," Powley said. "But no way did I think that it would be the state that would destroy it."

So I guess he thought he & his fellow watermen would do it!

You obviously don't understand how this works. The crabs do not stay in the bay all year, year after year. They are not born here and die here. The crabbers don't "catch them all up." The females head to the opening of the bay in Virginia, where they scrape off and release the eggs. The water current then decides which way those eggs will go. Delaware? North Carolina? It's a cycle, and that's why some years the crabs are plentiful, and some years crabs are scarce.

The real problem that no one is addressing is that Virginia is allowed to catch "sponge" crabs. The pregnant female crabs about to let her eggs loose. Each one of those crabs has on average 2 million baby crab eggs. Each one of those crabs being caught is killing off the species.

It is Virginia that needs to have stronger restrictions. They share the bay with Maryland, yet they are allowed to do many things that Maryland is not. There lies your problem.

Why feel for these waterman, they aren't hiring Americans, they are exploiting immigrant workers....
Begin quote:
In addition to trying to persuade Maryland to roll back restrictions, the island's crab processors are lobbying Congress to let several hundred workers return to this country each year under a visa program known as H2B.
End quote:

I agree with most of you who posted here; it's unfortunate, but if some don't suffer now, there won't be anything to catch later. The rockfish made a great comeback, so there is still hope for the oysters and crabs; but only if the state and the counties crack down on development that ruins the bay.

I believe earlier articles on this subject stated that Virginia is finally taking steps to limit the female crab harvest. If not, these watermen may actually have a modestly legitimate gripe.

the price of fuel is pushing people out of business,

the price of products because of the cost of fuel is pushing people out of business.

NAFTA has seen millions of jobs going overseas and leaving people out of work,

the farmers are losing their farms to developers

soft sales has forced the closing of automotive dealers in the state,

boat manufacturers are seeing record lows

I have not heard the crabbers speak up for any of these other people once. Do not expect anyone else to show concern for them. We can get our crabmeat from overseas.

May they be happy in their retirement.

Once again, watermen fail to take responsibility for their own past over-harvesting. If new regulations are not put in place, where do they think the future harvest will come from. Watermen have always failed to self-regulate, so the state must do it now. More regulations will bring complaints from the watermen, but so will no crabs!

Het drew, right back at cha. I hope your house falls in a sinkhole and you lose your job. Lets put the blame where it belongs - from PA farms and industry on the rivers leading to the bay. And lets not forget about all these pseudo- invironmentalists who just have to have their green lawns sprayed with fertilizers

This can't be good for She-Crab Soup.

Robbie wrote:

This can't be good for She-Crab Soup.

plenty of crabs to be had from other places to make the soup with.

poor pookie

Watermen are good people even though they say that no one else understands the biology of crabs like they do. If species are to survive on this planet, about 40% of the humans need to die off and not be replaced. There's too many of us to sustain our present situation. Less water to go around is at the top of the danger list. Scary for our kids and future generations.(but I won't be here to see it) Good luck to the future! Fusion power is the answer so tell your elected, nonrespected leaders to wake up and give lots of $$$ to fusion research.