Regulators Target Recreational Crabbers

A traditional birthright of all Marylanders -- the ability to catch a blue crab with a chicken neck, a string and a net -- could soon require a government license, under a proposal unveiled yesterday by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

The department wants all recreational crabbers, even those who catch just a single Jimmy crab in a day, to register with the state. It would cost nothing to register, officials said. But it could cost crabbers if they don't: Those caught crabbing without the registration could be subject to undetermined fines.

Today in Maryland, any crabber who catches two dozen or fewer in a day is not required to register with anybody.

But state officials, who are trying to engineer a comeback for the famous Chesapeake Bay crustacean, say that system is handicapping their efforts.

"To manage the crab population effectively, we need to know what's being removed," meaning how many crabs are caught, said Gina Hunt of the Department of Natural Resources. "We cannot do that without knowing who's out there crabbing."

The rule would apply to the Maryland portion of the bay, as well as to such tidal rivers as the Severn and the Patuxent, and to Maryland tributaries of the Potomac River. It would not apply to the Potomac River itself, where fishing is governed by an interstate commission. There, and in Virginia waters, small-scale crabbers still would not need a license.

In Maryland, tackle shop owners said yesterday that the idea -- paperwork required to chicken-neck, or to snatch unsuspecting crabs off an underwater piling -- sounded wrong.

"It doesn't feel like home. It feels like work," said Moses Wells, at Mo's on the Go in Edgewater, near Annapolis. "It's kind of like the bay isn't ours anymore."

Also yesterday, Maryland proposed rules that apply to commercial watermen, including a provision that would temporarily suspend the licenses of watermen who have not harvested crabs since 2004. Both Maryland and Virginia imposed strict new limits on the commercial harvests earlier this year.

The state will accept public comment from Jan. 16 to Feb. 17, including a hearing Jan. 27 on Kent Island on the Eastern Shore. The final decision will be made by the department and Gov. Martin O'Malley (D). Information is available at http://www.dnr.maryland.gov.