It seems that Virginia's crabbers aren't exactly flocking to take buyouts from their state, either. As the Associated Press reports, more than 500 of the state's 1,850 commercial crabbers submitted offers to sell their licenses back to the state by the Nov. 1 deadline.

"I like being outside, and I just absolutely love catching things — absolutely love it," Joe Palmer, a 54-year-old waterman told the AP, in explaining why he didn't offer to sell his license.

Virginia has committed $6.7 million to buy out commercial crabbers' licenses, and invited them to name their price, using a method that has proven successful in reducing some other overworked fisheries. Maryland tried a similar "reverse auction" to retire relatively small-time crabbing licenses that hadn't been used in a while, but gave up after getting only about 500 offers to sell that quoted prices ranging up into the millions of dollars.

Maryland has since switched gears, offering to pay a flat $2,260 for each of the "limited crab catcher" licenses turned in. So far, state officials say, about 530 have responded to the latest offer, which remains outstanding. The 3,700 "limited crab catcher" licenses the state has issued allow holders to use up to 50 wire-mesh "pots" or traps and an unlimited amount of baited line. The state is moving to restrict the use of about 2,000 licenses that haven't reported any catch lately, to keep them from jumping back into crabbing as the bay's crab population rebounds.

(2008 Baltimore Sun photo by Glenn Fawcett)