![]() ![]() And that's why we're not knowing what our future holds. GRAHAM: I don't know of many items that you can go buy in a grocery store and pay up to $20, $25 a pound for. ROGERS: At the Graham and Rollins picking house in Hampton, Virginia, Vice President Johnny Graham says low crab stocks and skyrocketing prices are destabilizing the industry. Other factors such as shoreline development and chemical runoff also affect crab survival. Blue crab populations widely fluctuate and no one's certain whether the decline is natural or human made. And a Maryland study last fall showed a drop of one third in the blue crab stock since 1990. ROGERS: In Virginia, 1995 was one of the worst blue crab harvests in decades. But nowadays, I mean, 20 barrels is all day limit the situation. I've seen it where we worked 35 minutes and caught 35 barrels in 35 minutes, fast as we could get them up, that's how quick it was. Nowadays it takes you all day to catch them. JENKINS: When I started with daddy we caught all we wanted. Robert Jenkins started working on the water 25 years ago. Further north, Maryland's crabbing is over by late fall, and pressure is mounting to restrict this harvest of hibernating females: the spawning stop for the whole Chesapeake Bay. The winter dredge season is unique to Virginia. ROGERS: A heister winch lifts out 6 barrels of crabs one by one, a slim catch for the 12-hour day. The captain and his mate spend the day raking the floor of the Lower Chesapeake Bay with metal dredges edged with steel claw teeth, digging out female blue crabs buried for the winter in the mud bottom. A dredge rig is usually pulled up with its motor running at the Herman Green and Sons stop downriver from Gloucester, Virginia. ![]() ![]() Producer Betty Rogers visited the crab fisheries around Norfolk, Virginia, and has this report. But the Bay's blue crab population may be in trouble, and this winter Virginia followed Maryland's lead in restricting crab harvests. The yearly harvest from the bay pumps nearly $200 million into the economies of Maryland and Virginia. More than half of the total US catch of blue crabs comes from the Chesapeake Bay. More than $20 a pound at some seafood markets. It's delicious, and today it's expensive. NUNLEY: If you've ever tasted the succulent meat of the Chesapeake blue crab, you know why it's considered a seafood delicacy. ![]()
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