Good News For Crabs

Virginia, for just the second time ever, but the second straight year, will ban dredging for hibernating blue crabs this winter. This is very good news! Granted the Chesapeake blue crab fishery and population has big problems and they aren't all caused (nor will they all be solved by a ban) by catching most of the pregnant females each winter and destroying the next year's offspring before they're even sprung.

Still, leaving the pregnant females alone is always a good plan when you are trying to increase the population, whether you're talking about crabs or fish or deer or people.

As a Marylander I'm doubly happy about this because despite the MD ban on winter dredging which has been in effect for years and years the vast majority of the pregnant females hibernate in the relatively warmer and saltier VA waters of the Bay so there wasn't anything we could do but sputter in protest while our neighbors wreaked havoc.