Food Fights: The Biggest Culinary Scandals Of 2011
Famous Death Row Last Meals
Photo: Tattooed JJ, Flickr
Government officials in Virginia and Maryland are ecstatic over reports showing the Chesapeake Bay's blue crab population has rebounded as the result of a conservation program implemented in 2008.
A release from Va. Governor Bob McDonnell's office characterized the findings as "great news for everyone who enjoys genuine Chesapeake Bay crab cakes and she-crab soup."
According to a survey released last week, the population has spiked 60 percent since last year, bringing the total blue crab count to 658 million.
"We had anticipated a bit of an improvement, but we saw these results and went 'wow'," Virginia Marine Resources Commission spokesman John Bull says. "We thought we were going in the right direction, but this far surpassed our expectations." Bull says experts are most excited about the number of juvenile crabs researchers found: The latest baby boom represents the biggest new generation of blue crabs since 1997, a statistic that bodes well for the future.
But Bull stresses he and his colleagues aren't yet ready to stage a victory crab cake feast: Blue crabs begin life at sea as microscopic larvae, dependent on currents to return them to the bay. "If we get a bad storm at a bad time, hundreds of millions of baby crabs don't get washed back," Bull explains, citing decades-old examples of abundant years followed by devastation.
"I'm hesitant to put a hard and fast number on it, but when we can keep the population around 800 million for three years in a row, we'll be more forceful in believing we've accomplished our mission," he says.
Blue crab stocks had declined to such low levels by 2008 that the U.S. Department of Commerce declared the fishery a federal disaster area. Still, crabbers largely resisted rebuilding measures, which included the elimination of winter dredging.
"We heard from hundreds of commercial crabbers at out commission meetings," Bull recalls. "One after another would get up to say this would mean they'd never work again. They said only God can make crabs, and nothing we did would make a damn bit of difference. They said their children would starve and the banks would foreclose on their houses."
Bull says he hasn't heard much from the crabbers since the resurgence was announced. "We have a commission meeting next week, and I betcha we don't see more than five or ten of them," he says.
Jennifer Aniston's Effortlessly Sexy Style
Whitney Houston Dead: Singer Dies at 48, Body Found in Beverly Hilton Hotel
Sheryl Crow Loves To Flaunt Toned Physique
Whitney Houston Dead: Stars React to Legend's Sudden Death
Can You Guess This Famous Face?
Comforter Soaked In Blood Found In Josh Powell's Storage Unit
Tips for flying cheaper in 2012
It's Pink!
LINSANITY CONTINUES
Savings Experiment: Snow Removal
Alleged Squatters Found With Drugs, Handgun, Grenades, Pig
14 Years Of Christina Ricci's Beauty Looks
There's only one thing to do when the Nürburgring is covered in snow...
Tax Reform in This Election Year: It's Not Likely
PHOTOS: Remembering Whitney Houston's Glittering Style
The Money Man Behind Rick Santorum: Who Is Foster S. Friess?
Nic Cage Addresses Vampire Rumors On 'Late Show'
The Happiest People In The World...
Front Row Celebrities At New York Fashion Week
White House Bending On Birth Control Rule
Chloë Moretz Is All Grown Up
TV's Best Music Moments
Hulk Hogan: 'I'd Celebrate It' If I Was Gay
PHOTOS: Makeup Malfunction!
PHOTOS: Saturn Does Cosmic Dance With Its Moons
Dougherty Sibling Pleads Guilty, Gets Deal
Couple Dies 88 Minutes Apart After 65 Years Of Marriage
Utah Man Chooses Execution By Firing Squad
New Rankings Finds D.C. Is A Great Place For Single Men
PHOTOS: Who WIll Be This Year's Cover Girl?
15 Obnoxious Notes From Roommates
Nevada Police Beating Of Man In Diabetic Shock Produces $300,000 Settlement
4-21-2010 @3:59PM Spoonman said... Only the gods can make crabs, but only humans can control themselves from eating them to extinction.
Reply
4-25-2010 @12:53PM luis said... eating crabs is disgusting, not only are they bottom scavengers but they have next to no meat on them its all crab guts. yuuuck !
4-21-2010 @3:10PM Guido said... They're back? Quick! Lets eat em!
Reply
4-25-2010 @6:46AM nascarbum said... How does someone get so excited about eating a relative of the "cockroach".
Reply
4-25-2010 @7:01AM Brink said... Personally I stay away from those crotch critters.
Reply
4-25-2010 @7:15AM John C. Billingsley, Jr. said... like you say, only God has control of this. The crabs are more plentiful and it's time for a huge one to come out of the water with 12 heads and 12 crowns I hope I will get to see all those events.
Reply
4-25-2010 @8:20AM tf said... wonder how many farmers in So. Pennsylvania and the Shenandoah Valley are out of business so you morons can have crabs to eat? Don't know what I'm talking about? EPA regulates nutrient flow into the rivers that flow to the chesapeake to save the stupid crab that you eat.
Reply
6-24-2010 @12:54PM jAMES said... Wow, I'm so honored to be called a "moron" by someone who apparently doesn't realize the true impact of fertlizer runoff is much much more than Blue Crab. You should be a scientist.
4-25-2010 @9:09AM cmg said... love blue crab, gonna have to take a long ride to get some, from fl. to chesapeake bay's a long, long ride, think we migth just do that..
Reply
4-25-2010 @12:00PM Tom said... Blue Crabs are a staple food of the Chesapeake region and they have been for hundreds of years. The population of the blue crabs has ALWAYS fluctuated up and down depending on currents and conditions in the bay. I find it amusing that we are so cocky as the human species to believe that we have any control over what happens in nature, we have none.
We are entering a new age in the evolution of the earth, lower mammals are catching up! We are seeing it in every successive generation, dogs and cats are getting smarter, they are developing cognitive problem solving skills.
The lesser hominid species such as monkeys and orangutans are gaining every day, they are being born with larger brains every generation. I suspect that it wont be more than 50-60 generations and they will be able to speak. We are just another animal species on earth, lets not forget that, we also need to remember that it is possible that WE might not be the dominant species in the future.
I can imagine that within 100 years with technology and evolution, we will be able to communicate with animals the same way we communicate with each other. We need to listen to our mother and hear what she is complaining about, otherwise, we might end up on the wrong side of global extinction like the dinosaurs.
4-25-2010 @2:04PM Joe said... Florida has some of the best blue crabs ever.
4-25-2010 @9:20AM cmg said... hay meijge, i see you changed you'r name from taijb 980, you need to stay off our comment sites you are every where with your dr. 31 yr .old looking for a women you'r nut's and need to be reported, you were on the detergent site this morning, and the worm site this morning and now the blue crab site, where elce are you, i'm gonna look and report you ,stick to you'r looking for a women site i think you's nut's and worrie about our people..
Reply
4-25-2010 @10:24AM FromDA757 said... WHATEVER!!!!!
The Blue Crab has been a Tidewater food tradition for generations...if you didn't like the article or you don't like crabs, then why bother to leave a comment! Save the space for those of us who are happy!!! and today to celebrate I'm gonna got get me some fried crabs and soda and chill by the Bay!!!!
Greetings from the 757!!!!!!
Reply
4-25-2010 @11:16AM sjd said... yes! I enjoyed reading your comment...eating crabs is a tradition in our family.
4-25-2010 @10:25AM FromDA757 said... *go get
Reply
4-25-2010 @6:55PM Jason said... Flying from 757 Boeing = contributing polluter.
Gluttony for extinct crabs = American consumer.
Glorious win = "I'm going to get me some fried crabs."
If you've passed algebra = destruction left behind on Earth you don't care about.
4-25-2010 @10:41AM Nichol said... Can't wait to eat some! Yummy!!
The better part of the season can't come fast enough.
Reply
4-25-2010 @11:38AM Coe Case said... I live in Florida, on a salt water canal. I have crab traps there, had blue crabs for dinner last evening, got more to clean and steam today. Yummy!
Reply
4-25-2010 @11:56AM Caddis said... Hey TF, Good idea! Let's let the So. Pennsylvania and Shenandoah Valley farmers pollute & kill the river systems & Chesapeake bay so we can eat their junk! Nice thinking! Real well rounded. How bout we dont kill the rivers, farm Penn & Shenandoah and collect crabs responsibly & sustainably?
Reply
4-25-2010 @2:41PM Cathy said... I want to thank the fishermen who obeyed the law, and threw the smaller crabs back into the Bay, and for limiting their catch. Those crabs are too good to miss this year. I did not buy any last year, do to the bad situation they were in. But This year is another story. Wouldn't it be great if we have the True jumbos 8" females like we had 10 years ago. Am gathering my nut crackers and mallets as we read on............
Reply