MD proposed amendments

The secretary of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources proposes to amend regulations for the management of the state's recreational and commercial blue crab harvest.

In 2001, the Maryland General Assembly enacted a Chesapeake Bay recreational crabbing license, established fees, limited the types of gear that may be used to catch crabs, and established recreational possession limits. The statute expired Dec. 31, 2003; the proposed regulations would reestablish the recreational license and limits.

Proposed new regulations include allowing commercial harvesters to take crabs caught in net gear (pound nets, fyke nets, hoop nets); renumbering buoys; defining points of land with navigational coordinates; and clarifying crab bank traps as being wire construction. Commercial crab pots must be removed from the coastal bays of the Atlantic Ocean and their tributaries by Nov. 16. The commercial crab season in the coastal bays ends Oct. 31; the Nov. 16 date provides commercial crabbers in the coastal bays a number of days equal to that allowed in the Chesapeake Bay for the removal of crab pots at the end of the season.

Comments may be sent to Harley Speir, Fisheries Service, Tawes State Office Building, B-2, 580 Taylor Ave., Annapolis, Md., 21401; or call 410-260-8260, fax 410-260-8278 or e-mail mailto:hspeir@dnr.state.md.us. Comments must be received by May 3.