Governors announced to take necessary steps to reduce by one-third the amount of female blue crabs harvested from the Chesapeake Bay, a joint effort to prevent the skid of the bay’s iconic species. As per Maryland officials the authority is ready to offer other work to watermen to make up for lost income. According to the natural resources officials there is $3 million in the capital budget to help the seafood industry. This amount could be used to hire watermen to build oyster reefs or start aquaculture businesses, says official.
Gov. Martin O’Malley and Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, both Democrats, stood together to save Chesapeake blue crab. They said that this is a very resilient species that could come back very quickly. They told that had charged their natural resources agencies with imposing restrictions to reduce the female harvest, a reduction that could be achieved by bushel limits, bans on crabbing during parts of the season or other means.
Kent Island waterman Billy Crook told that the government-funded Oyster Recovery Project, which among other things has paid watermen to move oysters in the bay. But he complained saying, “We barely made it last year, and now we’ve got huge diesel prices to deal with.” Scientists and regulators in Maryland see the dialogue between the two states as a positive sign which tells the state of the resource that we have to take drastic steps.
Donald F. Boesch, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, since the two states share a common philosophy they should take necessary action to save crabs and if they fail there is no one else to blame.
