Rough weather brings rough start to crabbing season

DEAL ISLAND, Md. – Local watermen on Deal Island say severe weather has brought more freshwater into the area allowing different fish to eat up on crabs, which cuts down significantly on their catch.

“We’re seeing catfish go down here like never before and things like that and that’s worrying us all about as far as those consuming the blue crabs and getting into the ecosystem, and things like that,” said Richie Calloway, a local waterman.

“The catch right now so far for this year for hard crab is probably 25 percent of what they caught the same time last year,” said Arby Holland, owner of Arby’s General Store in Wenona.

“It’s much, much slower,” said Holland.

According to Holland, the recent weather has forced some watermen to stay off the water a lot more than usual forcing them to make new changes and save money.

“They’re going to cut out the fuel expense, they’ll cut out the bait expense, some of them got a couple maids on the boat cutting those expenses and then you might not have as many crabs for going every other day as you have for every day,” said Holland.

Watermen say there is only so much they can do to keep up with mother nature and keep their businesses going until the next season.

“We try to make due with what we can and make due with what the Lord gives us and make the best of it and that’s pretty much all we can,” said Calloway.

Watermen also say if their catches continue to stay scarce throughout the season customers can expect to see bigger prices for the crabs. Also, even though the total catch went down 75 percent compared to last year watermen say they are hopeful numbers will increase as the warmer weather approaches.