MARYLAND crabbers will be able to work longer days with a longer season next year, but they will not do so cheerfully.
Consumers of the Chesapeake blues will find larger crabs on the market, but they will grumble about the higher prices.
And the crab-picking houses that have seen their jobs and revenue steadily squeezed may be the most unhappy.
The state's tougher crab harvest rules correctly aim to protect the shrinking numbers of Callinectes sapidus in the bay, sparing smaller, younger crabs from capture so they can reproduce.
Minimum sizes for all stages of adult crabs - peelers, soft-shell and hard-shell - will increase in 2002.
Possession of undersize crabs, even those caught out of state, will be illegal.
The new rules heed loud complaints by watermen about the shortened season and workday imposed by Maryland this year.
Next year, the season will be extended by 45 days and crabbers' workdays won't be limited to eight hours.
Catches will likely be down, but higher prices for more desirable larger crabs may compensate watermen.
A later season typically means higher catches of larger crabs.
By almost every measure, the population of bay blue crabs is seriously declining.
Commercial harvests are at historic lows, biological surveys show significant downtrends, and scientists say the bay crab population stands just a hurricane away from complete collapse.
Maryland and Virginia are pledged to reduce harvests by 15 percent over three years.
So Virginia is on the line to impose commensurate catch limits shortly, or face a Maryland legislative backlash next month.
This state's rules will hurt crab-picking houses, already hit by years of tighter harvest rules and rising foreign crab imports.
Larger crabs will go for market and restaurant sale.
The Maryland plants can't import smaller crabs to process, either.
Reducing harvest pressures on bay blue crabs is vital for their recovery.
But relief for people in the shrinking industry also deserves serious consideration.
