A Watershed Moment for the Crab
TOOLBOX   Resize Text
 Save/Share +
COMMENT
|
Discussion Policy
CLOSE
To be truly serious about saving the crab, we should stop thinking about crabs and the people whose livelihood depends on them ["Saving the Crab -- and the Watermen," Close to Home, May 11]. This may sound callous, but I'm serious, for reasons that include a personal history of pulling crab pots and trotlines, tonging for oysters and dragging in seines and gill nets.
As a community and region, we will do far more to do justice to both crabs and watermen through total watershed strategies. Perseverance in counting crabs, dividing the catch, and re-creating bi-state advisory bodies that have diligently observed the present decline do little to foster much hope.
That our human-centric affections would leave us concerned about declining prospects for watermen is understandable. But this is thinking tactically when we need a broad strategy. If we focus primarily on the human economy or one species alone we will surely do more harm than good.
GEOFFREY PARKER
Dunkirk, Md.
