A powerful cold snap killed some 200 million crabs in the Chesapeake Bay last winter, mostly in Maryland waters, scientists reported Tuesday. Despite that, the Bay's crab population hit its second-highest mark since 1997 – proof, Virginia officials say, that their efforts at stirring a comeback of the prized blue crab are working.
"Clearly, we're on the right path," state Secretary of Natural Resources Doug Domenech said in a statement, "and this drop in crab abundance just means it will take a bit longer to completely rebuild the stock."
According to the annual Blue Crab Winter Dredge Survey, a collaborative field study between Virginia and Maryland scientists, the estimated Bay population in 2010-11 was 463 million crabs – down 30 percent from the previous year.
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