Slow Start to Crab Season With Cold Weather

TALBOT COUNTY, Md. - Maryland loves its crabs, but will Marylanders love the price they will pay for them? 

Last week's annual winter survey shows the overall crab population in the Chesapeake Bay is down. This could mean smaller harvests for watermen. Tricking down to higher prices for consumers. 

The costs of blue crabs could pinch your wallet. Crabs are typically sold by a dozen or half-bushel. A dozen crabs costs about $55. While a half-bushel costs three times that at $165. 

Josh Parker, owner of T.L. Morris Seafood in Trappe, MD, says crabbing season started off slow and has not picked up. "It really hasn't gotten better. There's a lot of, well I should not say a lot. A decent amount of crabs that are undersized. And not many that are over the legal limit," Parker explains, "those that are over the legal limit are just barely. They're just shedding at 5 inches. 5 1/4 and not many of them at the moment." 

That current size, is the problem. The state of Maryland requires at least 5 inches for male hard crabs to be harvested. If not many crabs reach that benchmark, this holiday weekend, supply could be limited. 

"Until we get through another shed or so and this weather stays warms for awhile, I think it will be unfortunately a little bit higher price and limited supply," Parker says. Shed or molting, is a process, much like that of a snake where it sheds its skin,  crabs shed their shells and sometimes their legs. 

Casey Higgins, who owns the Crab Shack off Route 50 in Easton agrees it is not ideal selling crabs at these prices. Higgins, however, believes people will still want them no matter the cost saying, "the demand is definitely there. People want to eat 'em. They've been home all winter and now it's summer. It's crab season so."

Crabbing season is like the tide. It ebbs and flows, which is why both Parker and Higgins believe sometime this summer, when the water warms, crabbers will be able to harvest much more than at the beginning of the season. 

A spokesperson with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources says no limits will be placed this season in terms of crab harvesting. The plan is to continue surveying the bay and keep up with the status quo. 

 

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