This is the question Newport News reporter Patrick Lynch asks in a nice column for his paper, which you can read here.

Lynch went crabbing, or at least interviewed crabbers, in the Old Dominion state, who report they are having one of their best years yet. This was the case last year as well, at least in the Upper Bay and in parts of the lower Western Shore; crabbers were baffled by the DNR restrictions because they were actually catching more crabs than they had in previous years.

Great as the threat to crabbers seems to be from the most recent restrctions -- all aimed at getting a 34 percent reduction in harvest -- I think there is a greater threat. And that is market forces.

I went crabbing last week with Tommy Powley, a grandfatherly waterman who works out of Hoopers Island and crabs on the Western Shore. We were out from 4:30 a.m. until about 2. He caught 30 bushels of crabs in that time. And while I took a nap and chit-chatted with Powley and his crew, those three guys did not stop working for even a minute. They hoisted pots, pulled out crabs, re-baited the pots, threw them back, and culled out all the crabs that were too big and too small to keep.

Now, 30 bushels isn't a bad haul for a day's work, and Powley said that, the week before, he could have caught even more, but a mid-July size limit on males meant he had to throw back a lot of number ones.

But the problem is this: he was only getting $65 a bushel for the males, and $25 for females.

When you factor in what he has to pay two helpers, his bait, his fuel, he is making barely any money.

But someone IS making money. The question is, who?

When was the last time you bought a bushel of crabs for anything close to $65 a bushel?

A co-worker of mine said he had a crab feast last weekend and bought two dozen steamed jimmies for about $70 bucks. There are a lot mroe than 24 crabs in a bushel.

Fuel costs are a factor here. So are packing costs. Even Old Bay is probably more expensive than it was a year ago.

But still, how do we account for this huge discrepancy? How can prices in the city be more than twice what they are at the dock?

These are truly unfortunate times, when we are all strapped. Hey, I've even started bringing my lunch to work. Every little bit helps.

So, what's a middle-class person going to skimp on? Crabs. Charter boat fishing trips. Anything they can.

We might, collectively, be more inclined to buy crabs if the price dropped a bit. So, why isn't it happening?