Evening capital and Maryland gazette., 1915-08-27
DISAPPEARANCE OF
THE SOFT SHE'LL CRAB.
Annual Catch, Amounting TO Millions
Of Dollars, Is Threatened
With Extinction.


With Extinction.
Gourmets who hail the summer be
cause II usually brings the delectable
soft-shell crab into season. are now
alarmed over the possible disappear
ance of that delicacy from restaurant
bills of fare.or at least ;ts retention at
prices which except to the rich must
be prohibitive.
In Maryland. where the catching
and shipment ofsoft-shel crabs has
become an important industry in the
last ten years, and has made fortunes
in Crisfeld. the centre of the crab
business. the alarm is acute. The
crab is threatened with extinction.
The Chesapeake Bay is the greatest
breeding ground for edible shellfish
in the world and there the American
crab. a different creature from the
shell fish Of the same name that is ia
ken from the ocean has its habitat.
The Shrewsbury produces few in
portion TO the great area Of water
that Is almost encircled by Maryland
and Virginia. Swepson Earle. the En-
gineer OF the Maryland Shellfsh Com
mission. estimates that the usual value
of the catch in the Chesapeake runs
into millions of dollars. This profit
able industry is threatened with ex-
tinctino because of the lack of protec-
tive legislation, and because OF the
difference in the way Maryland and
Virginia attempt to regulate the fish
ing in such portions of the great bay
IS come under their respective laws
Virginia has pursued a shell-tish
policy I'm her fishery legislation. while
Maryland has been mistakenly liber-
al, or else her laws have left loopholes
which make their enforcement next to
impossible. The boundary between the
two states is the low water mark on
the south side of the Potomac river.
Yet for many years Maryland has al
lowed Virginia to use the whole river
in common with her own citizens
Virginia has given nothing in return
No resident of Maryland may fish in
Virginia waters under penalty of con
fiscation of property and imprison-
ment of the commander of the vessel
breaking the Virginia law. No resi-
dent of Maryland may even hold stock
in a fish factory in Virginia, that in
stitution. so numerous and so odori-
ferrous, for the extraction Of oil from
the menhaden or alewife.
Recently the menhaden have desert
ed the lower Chesapeake fer the upper
bay. To circumvent the Maryland law
the owners of Virginia fishing steam
ers make over their nets for a nom
inal sum to a resident oe Maryland.
pay him so much per thousand on
their catch. and work safe from moles-
tation of Maryland waters During
recent visit to lower Maryland. a cor
respondent was told that this season
the yield of soft crabs in the middle
Chesapeake had been less than % per
cent. of what Il had been for the cor
responding period last year The
catch last year was much less than for
the year before. and the sanson's TAX
ings have been shrinking each year,
ever since the fishermen of Hampton,
Va. have been dredging the crabbrced-
,ng grounds in the winter time.
The crab seeks warmer water in the
winter, and from the upper and middle
Chesapeake, they swarm to the shores
of the lower bay when thee old comes,
for there is little danger of the snrf>ce
above them freezing. The crab grows
by shedding its shell, there Being six
phases in its life, which are repeated
until the shell-fsh is full grown.
First. there is the hard crab. Next
comes the "snot," in which the inner
soft shell is beginning TO form. Next
IS the "peeler,' when Tire inner shell is
complete. When the hard shell be-
gins 70 separate at the back. we have
the buster" and then from the shell
emerges the soft crab
A few hours in the water, and then
the shell begins TO harden. Most of
the crabs served in New York restaur-
ants. in the writer's experience. are
crabs of the sixth stage. the paper
she'll" II is only with the actual
soft reab that every particle csn be
eaten. after the necessary cleaning
has been done. To reach the New
York market as real soft crab. the
shell-fish must be shipped from C~is-
field as q peeler or buster.
Now the young crabs are born in the
southern bay, scatter to the various
parts of the great sea in the spring
and flock W the rivers. where they are
sought as a menas of livelihood.
Whole communities in Maryland en-
gage in crab-fshing in ihe months
when there is no ''r" ard the oyster is
not TO be caught under the law. The
month of the PatuXent. for instance,
mas become one of the great sources OF /
supply fsr the Crisfield market. and |
,hree big gasoline boats have been
employed in collecting from this one
deId the supplies gathered in by local
commission merchants from men and |
boys who have searched every morn
ing, every foot Of shalloy water for |
miles and miles up the rivers and the
numerous creeks.
The crabmen say that the Hampton /
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