Within days of floating a plan to make all recreational crabbers buy licenses, the Department of Natural Resources is backpedaling on charging even a nominal fee for the annual permit.

On Monday night, DNR fisheries officials presented what they called "options" for licensing all crabbers not currently required to have one.  The estimated 65,000 Marylanders who have been allowed to catch crabs from the shore or their piers without licenses would need to plunk down $2 to get an yearly permit, officials said.  

That meeting was "poorly advertised and lightly attended," according to the Annapolis Capital, which broke the story.   When I contacted DNR to follow up, I was furnished with a copy of the PowerPoint presentation explaining that the department's ability to protect crabs and regulate their harvest is hampered by the lack of reliable information on the recreational catch.

Though the recreational catch is believed to represent only about 8 percent of the overall crab harvest, state officials say their surveys in years past have produced widely variable estimates, ranging from 1.6 million pounds to 2.9 million pounds.

The DNR presentation also suggested charging fees sufficient to cover the cost of the recreational crabbing surveys the state does - upwards of $400,000, according to a DNR spokeswoman.  The $2 fee on previously unlicensed crabbers wouldn't generate enough revenue, but hiking other crabbbing permit fees as well could pay for the survey, the presentation said. 

Licensing recreational crabbing has been a hot-button item, and lawmakers have balked in years past at messing with what some see as one of those fundamental freedoms in Maryland - to catch a few crabs to eat from your pier or shoreline.  The state managed several years ago to get approval to license crabbers who go out in boats, but until now waterfront property owners and casual dipnetters have been off-limits.

Apparently reasistance remains.  I wrote a short story for Thursday's Baltimore Sun about the licensing plan.  But before the story could run, I got a call from the DNR spokeswoman saying no decision had been made about going ahead, even though the presentation had outlined a timetable for publishing the regulation in a few weeks.  I wrote that the licensing was under consideration, and quoted a Republican delegate who criticized the licensing move, saying it was too much to ask people to pay even $2 in rough economic times.

The next day, I saw DNR Secretary John Griffin (pictured right), and he defended the need for licensing all crabbers.  He said it would improve the accuracy of the state's surveys if they knew how many people were crabbing and who they were.  But he said he was inclined not to ask for a fee; crabbers could just fill out some form - online, preferably - and get a permit without paying anything.

"Frankly, given the times we're in, the economics and all, if we do establish some sort of registry for crabbers who are not licensed, it's unlikely we're going to charge a fee," he said.  Acknowledging that department officials were taking some heat over the license plan, he said state officials would find some other way to pay for the crab catch surveys.

(Sun photos by Algerina Perna and Kim Hairston)