Are any readers following what's going on in Virginia with the crabs? These past few weeks have been important ones as the state has said it's time to start over with the management of the species.

Last week, the Virginia Marine Resource Commission voted to create a 94-square-mile sanctuary for pregnant females stretching from Cape Henry to the North Carolina border. It will be a no-harvest area fron June 1-Sept. 15, during which time female sponge crabs are about to give birth.

At the same time they created the sanctuary -- or perhaps, in exchange for it? -- the commission also partially lifted a ban on catching female sponge crabs. Rom Lipcius, a noted crab expert at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science who told me last week he's very concerned about the crab spawning stocks, was one of the scientists advocating for this approach. He said many of the dark female sponges -- so called because they're carrying large egg sacs on their back-are going to die anyway when watermen take them and then throw them back.

I asked Lipcius what happens to the pregnant crabs when they're caught. He said the sponge is removed and they're sent to the picking houses. When we eat them in a crabcake, we are none the wiser that millions of eggs were once attached.

With juvenile crabs at low levels, Lipcius says the sanctuary is the best way to protect the crabs and that allowing a sponge fishery is not going to harm stocks. Maybe it's a MD-VA thing, but several managers at Maryland's Department of Natural Resources disagree. Then again, we're in a good position to throw cold water on Virginia's plans here -- most of the crabs Maryland watermen catch are males, while our neighbors to the south are mostly catching females.

If you're interested in learning more about crabs in the Old Dominion state, check out Scott Harper's excellent work in the Virginian Pilot. Here's a link to his story about the restrictions.