It is reported that both Maryland and Virginia have not always cooperated to protect the great estuary’s natural resources, which include striped bass, shad and blue crabs. Last year Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley and Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine had pledged to halt the iconic blue crab’s precipitous decline through imposition of a 34 percent harvest reduction, that promise was heartening. But in reality it was found that Virginia crabbers had decreased their catch by 37 percent but Maryland crabbers may have not reduced their harvest at all.
Now this sours their cooperative effort. Gov. O’Malley should promptly address the situation, lest it deteriorate and provoke open crab warfare. It is told that since 1990s there was growing concerns about the blue crab and have urged greater protection of the feisty crustacean.
It is said that Virginia had adopted a 22-mechanism management plan in 1994 to enhance bay-wide stock, but a lack of cooperation between Maryland and Virginia and their insufficiently rigorous actions permitted the crab’s situation to decline. In 2007, these developments led Virginia to convene experts, who studied the crustacean and issued a January 2008 report which is negative.
In spring 2008, Virginia responded by placing numerous restrictions on the crab harvest, such as ending the century-old winter dredge season. Maryland acted less quickly and fully by issuing April proposals, on the season’s eve, and later final controls, which imposed phased reductions on the female harvest in September and October and closed the season on October 23. Last year, Maryland and Virginia admirably coordinated their efforts to prevent additional decline of the venerable blue crab by reducing harvests one third. Virginia seemed to attain that objective, but Maryland has apparently not secured the goal.
