Ehrlich on Washington column, March 19, 2001

NEWS FROM Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. Second Congressional District of Maryland 1 407 York Road, Suite 304 Lutherville, Maryland 21093 3 1 5 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 EHRLICH ON WASHINGTON Week of March 19, 2001 By Congressman Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. Looking Forward at The Chesapeake Bay The warm weather we experienced last week reminded me that spring and summer are just around the comer. There will be plenty of time for recreation and family gatherings. To me, that means another summer of steaming and enjoying Maryland blue crabs. I am worried, though, about Maryland’s crab harvest. Last year was the worst year on record for catching and selling crabs. This year, the state is predicting the harvest will be even worse. Thousands of Marylanders work in the crab industry for their livelihoods and tens of thousands more catch crabs off their docks. Anyone who has gone crabbing recently knows that it’s a lot harder to catch a bushel than ever before. Opinions vary on why crabs are becoming more scarce. Some people blame overfishing. Some people think pollution in the Chesapeake Bay has damaged the underwater grasses where young crabs find shelter. Others point to the resurgent rockfish and their huge appetite for eating young crabs. Some people say not to worry, that crab populations, like so many others, rise and fall naturally over the years. Chances are, the decrease in crabs is due to a combination of these and even other reasons. But the bottom line is simple: there are more people than ever before catching fewer and fewer crabs each year. Nowhere is this more of an issue than right here in our Second Congressional District. Some of the proposals to address the growing problem will hit the people in Harford, Baltimore and Anne Arundel Counties the hardest. I would like to know how you feel about the problem and how you think it can be fixed. There is a proposal being debated by the Maryland General Assembly right now in Annapolis that would require every recreational crabber — people who drop traps off their docks, kids over 16 with chicken necks on strings, people who run trot lines for their family gatherings — to pay five dollars for a crabbing license. The bill would also limit the catch to one bushel per day and restrict the number of traps and the lengths of trot lines. The money raised through the fees would go in to a special fund to help study ways to rebuild the crab population.