Virginia regulators moved last Tuesday to ban the winter harvest of blue crabs despite the crustacean’s comeback in the Chesapeake Bay.
The Virginia Marine Resources Commission set a public hearing in August to ban dredging of hibernating female crabs, a century-old fishery that, until four years ago, helped sustain generations of watermen.
Commission members said the ban, plus other measures enacted after the fishery nearly collapsed in 2008, is essential to keeping healthy stocks of blue crabs. They pointed to the 89 million pounds that Virginia and Maryland harvested last year, the biggest catch since 1993.
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