BALTIMORE (AP)- Big male crabs fetch the highest prices, but when it comes to ensuring the Chesapeake Bay will continue to produce those No. 1 males, researchers are increasingly paying attention to how many females are harvested.
A new assessment to be released Tuesday will further refine recommendations on how many females can be pulled from the bay. The current recommendations say the harvest should be limited to 46 percent of the population overall. A Virginia fisheries official testified last month that the new report will call for limiting the catch of female crabs to 34 percent of their total.
The population is rebounding and that has some calling for easing restrictions put in place in 2008 after a sharp drop. However, a cold winter killed nearly a third of adult crabs.
