No Winter Crabs

One of our class presenters asked how we'd feel if crabbing in the Bay was banned for awhile to restore crab populations. In fact, that's already the policy and it has been for a few years- during the winter. Virginia has voted to continue the ban on winter crabbing and Maryland will likely follow suit. With all the damage that the Bay sustained this year, including the aftereffects of Irene dumping huge amounts of sediment, this seems inevitable. While the resurgence in the population observed in the spring was good news, there is still a long way to go before we can look at our crabs with as much comfort and confidence as we look at our rockfish population.