THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 6, 1995 TAG: 9512060008
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 38 lines
Being a native of Hampton Roads, I grew up loving the blue crab, considering it a wonderful delicacy and just another present from the beautiful waters of the Chesapeake Bay.
A couple of years ago I purchased a bushel of crabs from a popular local seafood market. When I arrived home and prepared to steam the bushel, I was horrified to see that every crab was female and each had eggs. The worst part - most were not much more than 3 to 4 inches. I took the entire bushel back to a tributary of the Bay, culled out the ones that were still alive and put them back to, I hoped, grow and lay their eggs.
When you think that there were at least 10 dozen females and this was only one of many bushels sold that day, how can anyone - especially the watermen - not know what is happening to the crab population? Why do they have to keep females at all? Jimmies are still available (but not for long because there will not be any females to lay the eggs).
Female crabs are illegal to take in Maryland. Why not make them illegal here? The mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, the Virginia waters, is where they breed. What good does it do to have Maryland ban the taking of females if Virginia does not?
If females are able to lay their eggs, there will be more crabs and more females to produce more eggs - and so the life cycle of the blue crab goes on. I believe if drastic measures are not taken, the blue crab, in the next few years, will be practically nonexistent.
APRIL B. RIVERS
Virginia Beach, Nov. 28, 1995 by CNB