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December 6, 1999
OXFORD, MD -- Researchers say a parasite that has been killing crabs from the Gulf of Mexico to Long Island may be responsible for the the drop in the crab catch in Maryland.
The commercial catch in Maryland's coastal bays was cut in half last year, and apparently has dropped again this year, although final figures are not in.
Researchers at the National Ocean Service laboratory in Oxford say it is unclear how much of the decline is due to the parasite, hematodinium, which destroys the crabs' blood cells.
Gretchen Messick, a researcher at the National Ocean Service laboratory in Oxford, said the problem is likely to be worse than it seems.
"It's probably underreported because most people don't know what they're looking for," she said. 
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Unlike fish, dead crabs sink to the bottom and their deaths are hard to document, said Jeffrey Shields, an assistant professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science who is collaborating with Messick on the research.
The disease doesn't threaten people because infected crabs die and are discarded before they get to market. Most Chesapeake crabs are safe because the disease thrives only in areas of high salinity.
"I've had it that when I get a bushel of crabs, by the time I get to the dock, a dozen of them are dead," says Rick Huettner, who has crabbed in the coastal bays for 27 years. "I've seen it, when it's real bad, I lose a third of a bushel."
"There's been times we have crabs that don't have the strength to lift a claw."
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