This might put an undue hardship on him by having to get a license and restricting the amount of crabs he can get at any one time. The measures, introduced last month, have been up for hearings in the House Environmental Matters Committee and the Senate Environmental and Economic Affairs Committee. Committee votes are expected this week in both houses. The bills are part of a two-state effort to double the size of the blue crab spawning stock by cutting the harvest 15 percent over the next three years. In Maryland, recreational crabbers older than 16, including owners of waterfront properties who drop crab pots off their piers, would have to purchase a license and limit their catches to a bushel a day.
Regulations require licenses for recreational crabbers only when they use a lot of equipment.
Licensed recreational crabbers may take three bushels per boat per day, and unlicensed crabbers may take up to two bushels a day. Virginia has limited the number of commercial crab licenses available and has set up a summertime deepwater sanctuary in the main stem of the bay. The Virginia legislature adopted a measure in its recent session that would give the state's Marine Resources Commission the authority to impose regulations on recreational crabbers, but Gov. James S. Gilmore has not signed it. Scientists, pointing to surveys that show the bay's most valuable commercial stock is being fished to its limit, say they hope the restrictions will stem the decline of the blue crab population and reverse a trend toward smaller crabs. It is part of a broad strategy that also includes a slate of commercial regulations now on a parallel track.