Increased Restrictions on Crab Harvest Reflect Dire Circumstances

As the days grew longer and the water warmed, waterman Don Pierce readied his crab rig in the yard, much as he has each spring since 1975, when he started plying the Chesapeake Bay for blue crabs.

But there was an edge to Pierce this spring as he repaired the cabin in the Bri-Steff, his 48-foot rig. Instead of looking forward to retirement, Pierce was thinking about finding a new job in the face of what is widely expected to be a lousy crab season on the Chesapeake.

"I feel like crying in my beer," said Pierce, who left his Kent County home last week for the water as soon as Maryland's commercial crab season opened April 1.

The prognosis for the blue crab, the Chesapeake's hallmark seafood product, is bad. Last year the catch was Maryland's second-lowest since 1945, and winter population surveys indicate this year's harvest may not be much better. Fishery regulators in Maryland and Virginia say the crab population is nearing dangerous lows. They are scheduled to announce measures today to reduce the harvest even further and save the crabs.

But Pierce wonders whether his livelihood can be saved.

"Where am I going to go to find a job at 59 years old?" he said. Pierce dreads the latest round of restrictions. "It doesn't sound promising at all."

From Pierce's dock at the north end of the Chesapeake, south to Virginia waters, to the mouth of the Atlantic Ocean, watermen cannot stop worrying about crabs. Neither can the picking houses that pack crabmeat for sale, or the restaurants that still serve Chesapeake Bay blue crab instead of relying on meat from the Gulf of Mexico or Asia.

The worry extends to government scientists who manage the crab fisheries in the Chesapeake. Maryland and Virginia scientists say they have one more chance to protect the crabs -- or face a potential collapse of one of the region's last viable fisheries.

"The Chesapeake blue crab is iconic," said John M.R. Bull, spokesman for the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. Bull's voice rises when he talks about the seriousness of protecting blue crabs.

"Crab soup is a staple. In crab-picking houses, there are people who have for generations made a living picking crabs. Crab cakes are a delicacy. We are not going to risk that going away," he said.

But in a region where crab soup recipes can inspire family feuds and people insist on knowing exactly where their crabs were caught, passions run hot when talk turns to what to do about low crab numbers.

Some people do not think anything should be done because crabs go through natural population cycles, with the population up one year and down the next in unpredictable fashion.