Last Thursday a Maryland House-Senate Panel of lawmakers did the right thing in the name of conservation and voted 10-2 to approve Maryland Department of Natural Resources (Maryland DNR) recommendation of a 34 percent reduction in the harvest on female crabs. This will be achieved through bushel limits on commercial crabbers, an all out ban on females for recreational crabbers and an early close to the female season for commercial crabbers. These new regulations passed on Thursday are under the Maryland category of “emergency regulation” which means they are in effect for 180 days. However, given the support from the Governor, landslide vote by the House-Senate panel and support of the Maryland DNR it is pretty much done deal that Maryland DNR will ask, and get approved, that the regulations become permanent. Watermen have said that with these regulations comes the end of the Maryland seafood industry, I’d argue and I think many agree, that these regulations are exactly the opposite, they assure the Chesapeake will have a seafood industry for blue crabs in the future. I commend and congratulate Governor O’Malley, the House- Senate panel and Maryland Department of Natural Resources John Griffin as well as other Maryland DNR workers for doing the right thing in the name of the crabs/fish to assure we have them for the future.

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