not following the rules

[CrabDog]

I would be OK with a crabbing stoppage. Only allowing Comm's a certain amount of crabbs per day and no rec's for 2 - 3 years. Look at the good things it did for the rock fish in MD waters.

yeah well keep in mind too.. when they closed the rockfish season for years... they also stocked millions of rockfish fingerlings throught out the bay... and that seem to coincide with the crab numbers starting to fall off since the mid 90's..... hmmmm.. number one predator on crabs is rockfish ( well and man )....... so will they need to stock baby crabs.... is that possible....?  same as the goose closure years ago.. went from 3 birds a day.. to closed.. then came back part time.... 1 bird.. then 2 birds second half of split season now 2 birds all season and longer season....but the critical thing was to protect the broods in Canada and let the the hatch numbers get up past a substainable population.. with the crabs that could take years....and it isn't as easy to accurately count crabs under water as hatches and flock counts of birds that are tagged and or released.. they also helped supplement the bird numbers with relaesing tagged birds ( stocking the resource per say )......it took about 10 years for both to come back...I am not sure what will need to be done to get the crabs back to levels of 10 years ago.......

[rdbeard]

 rockfish can't eat crabs they can't find hiding in the grass. water quality is bad and the are far less acres of grass because of it.  they currently stock hatched crabs every year but much more money would be needed to do this on a larger scale. rockfish live for 20- 30 years, crabs only live about 3 years so aa morritorium would'nt work the same way. clean the bay -bottom line.

[CrabDog]

rockfish can't eat crabs they can't find hiding in the grass. water quality is bad and the are far less acres of grass because of it.  they currently stock hatched crabs every year but much more money would be needed to do this on a larger scale. rockfish live for 20- 30 years, crabs only live about 3 years so aa morritorium would'nt work the same way. clean the bay -bottom line.

well I agree with the water quality lack of grass.... w/o hiding places soft crabs are defenseless against all the rock and big coraker and evey other fish out there...

[rdbeard]

it's not just the soft crabs , think about howmany 1-2 in crabs try to run the gaunletof predators as they try to make it up the bay towards lower salinity waters.

[CrabDog]

it's not just the soft crabs , think about howmany 1-2 in crabs try to run the gaunletof predators as they try to make it up the bay towards lower salinity waters.

so I guess the question is.. is it the lack of grass and places to hide or is it too [dang] many predators....  or is it both?

[Crabbyd]

so I guess the question is.. is it the lack of grass and places to hide or is it too [dang] many predators....  or is it both?

how about the vacuum of the bay...the cow nose ray? 

[CrabDog]

how about the vacuum of the bay...the cow nose ray? 

and here I thought it was because of people like you D.. pillaging the bay and  its bounty....

never see crabs or rockfish around cow nose rays.. so what is the correlation......

[dfran]

How about this;
 Stop all crabbing in Md. Waters by anyone Comms or Rec's for, lets say 3 years. Unlimited Rock fishing and a bounty of....say $5 on Cownose Rays. That should do it.

The only thing left to work on is the pollution entering the bay, maybe the out of work Comms can be hired to find and stop the pollution.

[reds]

Ain't it great??? People who don't live in Maryland, don't pay any taxes to Maryland, but think they should have a say about what to do with Maryland seafood and Maryland Businesses.

[hightop]

How about this;
 Stop all crabbing in Md. Waters by anyone Comms or Rec's for, lets say 3 years. Unlimited Rock fishing and a bounty of....say $5 on Cownose Rays. That should do it.

The only thing left to work on is the pollution entering the bay, maybe the out of work Comms can be hired to find and stop the pollution.

   Dfran, I don't think they'd have to look to hard to find the pollution source. All the people who've moved into the watershed area, all the waterfront homes with well fertilized lawns dumping nutrients into the system, all the roads and parking lots draining water instead of earth absorbing it, have to be the main problem.

   Don't know what can be done about it now though. Sometimes people blame it on farms, but at least around me, 90% of the farms that were here in the 60's and 70's, when I was a kid are gone, and are now communities with stupid names.

   Also, back in the 70's, I remember the bay grass was so thick it'd foul your prop, and the state used huge dredge rakes to clear channels, and also dumped chemicals into the bay to kill the grass. Anybody else remember that?

[jack1747]

How about this;
 Stop all crabbing in Md. Waters by anyone Comms or Rec's for, lets say 3 years. Unlimited Rock fishing and a bounty of....say $5 on Cownose Rays. That should do it.

The only thing left to work on is the pollution entering the bay, maybe the out of work Comms can be hired to find and stop the pollution.

I think that is a great idea! 

[jack1747]

   Dfran, I don't think they'd have to look to hard to find the pollution source. All the people who've moved into the watershed area, all the waterfront homes with well fertilized lawns dumping nutrients into the system, all the roads and parking lots draining water instead of earth absorbing it, have to be the main problem.

   Don't know what can be done about it now though. Sometimes people blame it on farms, but at least around me, 90% of the farms that were here in the 60's and 70's, when I was a kid are gone, and are now communities with stupid names.

   Also, back in the 70's, I remember the bay grass was so thick it'd foul your prop, and the state used huge dredge rakes to clear channels, and also dumped chemicals into the bay to kill the grass. Anybody else remember that?

Agnes took care of that problem... 

[Chef Lar]

Ain't it great??? People who don't live in Maryland, don't pay any taxes to Maryland, but think they should have a say about what to do with Maryland seafood and Maryland Businesses.

I think Dfran's statement was an attempt at sarcasm, least that's how I saw it.

[jack1747]

Shut Up Larry.... 

[dfran]

Ain't it great??? People who don't live in Maryland, don't pay any taxes to Maryland, but think they should have a say about what to do with Maryland seafood and Maryland Businesses.

Obviously you aren't smart enough to figure it out.

I think Dfran's statement was an attempt at sarcasm, least that's how I saw it.

It was Larry, everybody else was smart enough to know that, well almost everybody else.

[hightop]

   I should have realized you were just being sarcastic, but you never knowfor sure when you've got Sun reporters saying to have watermen plant trees along the waterfront and other crazy ideas.

   Like most of the wealthy people who live along the water would let you plant a tree to obstruct their view, after they spent so much $ having the ones that were there originally illegally cut down.

[reds]

Obviously you aren't smart enough to figure it out.

Smart enough to know when a sponge from Dallas Pa posts.

[dfran]

Smart enough to know when a sponge from Dallas Pa posts.

I never said you couldn't read just don't understand what you're reading

[reds]

I never said you couldn't read just don't understand what you're reading

You remind me of a guy in black pajamas, laughing and smiling to cover up what his true feelings were. All the while he had an ak47 hidden between his legs, just waiting for me to take my eyes off him.

[dfran]

You remind me of a guy in black pajamas, laughing and smiling to cover up what his true feelings were. All the while he had an ak47 hidden between his legs, just waiting for me to take my eyes off him.

That's me

What an idiot