One of my readers, Pasadena Roy, agrees with the idea of a crab moratorium and putting watermen to work for a year or two in a conservation corps. He makes a point here about recreational crabbing:

"Politically you and I are on the complete opposite ends of the spectrum. However, on the crabbing issue we scarily agree. DNR didn’t go nearly far enough with their new crabbing restrictions. I’ve been a recreational crabber for over 40 years; I’ve watched the politicians and the DNR cow tow to the commercial interests for over 25 years (the time which I’ve been paying attention). Joe Sixpack, the recreational crabber, gets screwed every time; politicians don’t pay any attention to the number of jobs created by and dependent on the recreational industry and when it comes to tax revenue generated by the commercial vs the recreational industry it’s not even close. They only pay attention to the campaign donations made by the commercial industry. Maryland has some of the best politicians that money can buy! Under the new regulations I have to turn loose every female crab that I catch so that the commercial crabber next to me can catch it and sell it to a packing house. That’s only considered fair and equitable in Maryland."