Top 25 things vanishing from America: # 19 -- Maryland blue crabs
Filed under: Food
This series explores aspects of America that may soon be just a memory -- some to be missed, some gladly left behind. From the least impactful to the most, here are 25 bits of vanishing America.
Maryland's icon, the blue crab, has been fading away in Chesapeake Bay. Last year Maryland saw the lowest harvest (22 million pounds) since 1945. Just four decades ago the bay produced 96 million pounds. The situation has gotten so bad that Maryland and Virginia are working together on the problem, cutting the harvest by about one-third this year.
The blue crab population in Chesapeake Bay is down 70% since 1990, when they first did a formal count. There are only about 120 million crabs in the bay and they think they need 200 million for a sustainable population. Overfishing, pollution, invasive species and global warming get the blame. Hotter water means there's less eel grass, where the blue crabs like to hide. Senators from Maryland and Virginia want $20 million for the crisis, but they're more worried about helping the ailing watermen than the crab population. The watermen tell Newsday they're also hurting because the lousy economy mean fewer people have $200 for a bushel of crabs.
Everyone hopes the blue crab won't go the way of the bay's oyster, which has all but disappeared. Locals have been eating the blue crabs for centuries--though only the boys actually have blue claws; the girls have red-tinged ones. People outside the Delmarva Peninsula didn't get to enjoy them until train shipping came in 1873, followed by canning. The crab pot made catching easier than the trot line. With faster shipping the whole country learned to enjoy Maryland Blue Crabs. Now they may become even more precious.
Update: The federal government has granted the state requests for $20 million to combat the dropoff in the blue crab population.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
7-15-2008 @ 8:52AM
allears said...
This should have been self explanatory to everyone, but people don't think! Blue crabs, like all creatures, have seasons. They are not ment to be year round food! Since people choose to ignore this and keep dredging and scraping the eggs off the females, the crabs get no time to rest and regroup! Think, idiots! Sizing is also an issue. There used to be a law about what size a crab had to be to keep. I don't think anyone pays any attention to that anymore. So now everyone will suffer when all the crabs are gone. Thanks so much all you massive crab fisheries and year round seafood stores, crabs are already expensive, soon you will have depleated our total supply!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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7-18-2008 @ 6:23PM
tom said...
I CRABBED ON BARNEGAT BAY NJ SINCE 1955. THE CATCH IS PITIFUL SINCE THEY STARTED DREDGING THEM OUT OF THE MUD IN THE OFF SEASON ABOUT 20 YEARS AGO. THEY NOW SELL FOR UPTO $40. A DOZEN. WE USED TO GET A BUSHEL FULL IN THE 70'S FOR 2 DOLLARS WORTH OF BAIT AND A DAYS FUN.
7-15-2008 @ 10:13AM
remark504 said...
Its hard to think, or beleive that the blue crab population is fading. I guess living in South Louisiana...we take it for granted that our crabs,shrimp, red fish, snapper, will last forever. The WLF and EPA needs to take a look at the industries that are polluting our waters. The fish can sustain our needs...but only if the pollution stops. Maybe Maryland can import some blue crabs from our area to help repopulate their area. But Maryland must pay for the stock. No more free stuff from Louisiana. We supply nearly 20 percent of the oil and natural gas used in this country...and we get less in government funding than most states....Figure that one out!
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7-16-2008 @ 10:54PM
sk\\Richard said...
I flew for an airline and retired in the mid 80's. We flew a non-stop flight from New Orleans to Baltimore and every day I flew, we hauled cases and cases of Lake Ponchartrain Blue Crabs to Baltimore. We used to joke that they became Chesapeake Bay Crabs when we landed in Baltimore. I'm not talking about just a few crabs, I'm talking about thousands. I guess there was a shortage of them up there even back then.
7-21-2008 @ 1:22PM
Lisa said...
The crabs from your area are another species and I don't think they will mate with ours.
7-15-2008 @ 10:17AM
remark504 said...
Its hard to think, or beleive that the blue crab population is
fading. I guess living in South Louisiana...we take it for granted
that our crabs,shrimp, red fish, snapper, will last forever. The WLF
and EPA needs to take a look at the industries that are polluting our
waters. The fish can sustain our needs...but only if the pollution
stops. Maybe Maryland can import some blue crabs from our area to
help repopulate their area. But Maryland must pay for the stock. No
more free stuff from Louisiana. We supply nearly 20 percent of the
oil and natural gas used in this country...and we get less in
government funding than most states....Figure that one out!
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7-15-2008 @ 12:29PM
remark504 said...
oh yeah....and we supply nearly 40 percent of the shrimp and oyster for our country....and 95 percent of the domestic crawfish.
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7-16-2008 @ 12:24PM
therese said...
And we supply Louisiana with all their assistance, but that's for another day. I live in Houston, TX, but I was born and raised in Maryland -- and you're right, this is a sickening situation. I left Maryland in 1986 and it was a problem then and they knew it (TWENTY TWO YEARS AGO) and now want to act shocked. WAKE UP!
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7-16-2008 @ 6:09AM
Pat said...
ALL YOU CAN EAT is cutting down on the supply more than anyone suspects. (duh) How can people be so dumb???
We have stone crabs with the same problem;
We also have a restaurant with all you can eat Maine Lobster.
Hellloooooooooooooo. If they put *all you can eat is two" it could help.
Pat
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7-15-2008 @ 2:07PM
Mike said...
I love how lots of people (especially the commercial crabbers) are blaming the striped bass for the sharp decline in crabs in the bay yet the fact they are taking mostly females seems to play no role in their minds. Everytime I go somewhere and see Maryland crabs advertise I see about 75% females and only 25% males and they wonder why the populations is going to hell? Stop keeping the females who can repopulate the bay and there will be plenty of crabs for the future.
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7-17-2008 @ 8:03AM
Tammy Sullivan said...
I totally agree, they have banned Maryland recreational crabbers from keeping females but the commercial crabbers that are doing the most damage get to keep them at this time.
7-22-2008 @ 2:44AM
Crabs! Yum! said...
So you know, both males and females are needed, and no, not just for the sex.
The male crabs find females that will shed sometime in the near future then capture them and carry them around for weeks. Eventually the female sheds and the male protects her while she is soft.
I'm not sure what this means for the optimal male/female ratio, but it's not like a herd of cows where only one bull is needed for the bunch.
I read somewhere that the main food source for blueclaw crabs was blueclaw crabs.
7-15-2008 @ 7:08PM
stan brazaitis said...
Last year,in July ,I purchased a bushel of blue female crabs , because they were cheaper than males, from a store along the Virginia shore. Everyone of them were fulled with roe. Why are they captured prior to laying their eggs? Thousands upon thousands, of young crabs never hatched. I will not buy female crabs or possibly none at all, until the crabbers realize that they are depleting the opportunity for reproduction, to make a profit now,while not concerned about the future supply. When the crabs are gone, they will ask for government assistance , for a shortage which they helped to create.
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7-21-2008 @ 10:51PM
Barbara said...
How do you tell a female crab from a male crab?
7-15-2008 @ 3:50PM
V said...
Yeah, I live in MD and between the pollution from Beth Steel and other industrial companies that dump into the water and not placing a moratorium on harvesting female Blue Crabs its no wonder they are on the list of extinction from MD!!
I feel for the watermen, but at the same time, unless changes are made now and everyone cuts back, then they will be in the unemployment lines in a few short years.
I do wish our representatives would wake up and hold the companies (including the Coast Guard who have been dumping in Marley Creek for many years) accountable and charge them with the costs of cleaning up the bay. The other step is to place a moratorium on the harvesting of Blue Crabs or at the very least, the females.
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7-15-2008 @ 5:38PM
Dave said...
Lets see... last year they harvested 22 million pounds of blue crab form the Chesapeake Bay. There are about three crabs per pound. That means that about 66 million crabs were harvested from what is believed to be a total of 120 million in the Bay. How can anyone expect to harvest half of the crabs each year and not deplete the supply. Maybe Maryland needs to do with crabs what was done with rock fish years ago - ban all crab harvesting for a year or two to let the population recover. Let the state pay commercial crabbers 25% of their crab income they reported the year before to supplement their incomes will they work doing something else for a couple seasons. It would be cheaper than having the industry die completely form over harvesting.
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7-16-2008 @ 8:04PM
Linda said...
That is the most intelligent option presented!
7-24-2008 @ 10:16AM
Patrick said...
You are absolutely correct! this sollution will work, but we also need to stop the pollution or we will all continue to eat contaminated food regardless of the amount available.
7-15-2008 @ 10:04PM
lynn wulff said...
Born & raised in Baltimore & all I can think is why don't we stop the glutenous all you can eat? Not necessary! Maryland without crabs would be unthinkable.
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7-16-2008 @ 4:49AM
Rob said...
To the writer who seemed to have the big chip on the shoulder about how much his native southern Louisianans provide the rest of the country, I'd offer that the rest of the country provides 95% of the tax dollars to rebuild yer azzzes after hurricanes wipe ya out (and keep the whole damn area above water between storms) to enable your industries to do so.
And actually us native Marylanders can tell ya your blue crabs don't even compare to ours here in the blue crab capital of the world as far as taste goes. Anyone that's eaten some would swear to that ! But in all seriousness, it is pathetic how no one can manage our resources without allowing commercial and industrial greed to diminish them to extinction.
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