HOOPERS ISLAND, Md. - The struggle continues for crab picking houses on the eastern shore of Maryland.
The H2B visa lottery system allows non-immigrant workers to pick crabs at the lottery 'winning' crab picking houses.
This season, A.E. Phillips and Son drew a 'B' category in the lottery so they were able to have workers. But in the past four seasons, the business has lost the lottery twice.
"Two out of the last 4 years we didn't get workers. This place was dark. There was no activity whatsoever. That means I've lost all my crabbers. I've lost customers because they still need crab meat so they bought from somewhere else," says John Walker Manager of A.E. Phillips and Son.
Congressman Andy Harris spoke on how he knows the struggles that this industry is going through with the H2B visa lottery system.
He discussed plans on exemptions and ultimately having enough workers to keep everyone in business.
"We're living year by year. And every year the administration decides on how many additional visas above a baseline that is just completely inadequate for our needs in this economy. That number has been growing every year. Tt's the highest its every been. But still its not a permanent solution. These businesses need a permanent fix. They need to know that, next year if they stay in business, they are going to get those foreign workers and we're working towards that end," says Harris.
J.M. Clayton Company who lost the lottery for this season is worried how they'll get by.
"We just have a few local workers now and that's all were working on. We're going for a supplemental lottery now but you cant run a business that way," says Jack Brooks.
Brooks says this year they drew an 'E' in the lottery. He says if you drew an 'A' or 'B' you got lucky and got workers. But a 'C, D, E, F, or G' was not lucky.
Congressman Harris says one of the ideas floating around is a seafood exemption meaning those in the seafood business could apply to have the correct allotment of workers that they need and it would not count against the cap of 66,000 visa workers. But it is still in a long legislative process.
Its a fight to save the Maryland seafood industry and livelihoods.