The Chesapeake blue-crab fishery is imperiled. A vast swath of Chesapeake Bay is off-limits to crabbing much of the year, so that more female blue crabs can survive and spawn.
Watermen chafe against the tightening limits on crabbing.
But more restrictions are inescapable. Earlier this year, Virginia, Maryland and the Potomac River Fisheries Commission agreed to cut the Bay blue-crab harvest by 15 percent to give the fishery a chance to revive. The expectation is that a 15 percent reduction will double the blue-crab breeding stock. So Maryland likely will further limit not only commercial crabbing but also recreational crabbing. The Maryland Senate has approved a bill that would allow recreational crabbers to catch two dozen crabs a day, but would impose seasonal license fees on those bent on taking more than two dozen while limiting daily take to a bushel.