To ease pressures on the Chesapeake Bay’s blue crab population, Virginia is paying watermen to stay out of the water, using $6.7 million in federal disaster aid to buy back crabbing licenses.
Many longtime crabbers won’t take the bait, though, preferring a backbreaking job with dwindling returns to no job at all.
"I like being outside, and I just absolutely love catching things — absolutely love it," said waterman Joe Palmer, who works in drenching rain and searing sun to yank up traps laden with skittering blue crabs.
Palmer, 54, illustrates the challenge fisheries managers face in Virginia and Maryland as they attempt to thin a bloated fleet of watermen that harvests the sweet-flavored shellfish synonymous with the bay. Veteran crabbers can’t imagine a divorce from a family business that dates back generations.
Read the complete story at The Boston Globe.