{"id":13498,"date":"2017-03-29T16:36:19","date_gmt":"2017-03-29T20:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=13498"},"modified":"2017-04-14T16:44:14","modified_gmt":"2017-04-14T20:44:14","slug":"recreational-crabbing-season-opens-april-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2017\/03\/29\/recreational-crabbing-season-opens-april-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Recreational Crabbing Season Opens April 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>Crabbers Can Get Cracking on State\u2019s Signature Catch<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/c2.staticflickr.com\/8\/7502\/16099800118_d77cfe44b9.jpg\" width=\"351\" height=\"235\" \/>It\u2019s crabbing season in Maryland!<\/p>\n<p>Recreational fishing for the state\u2019s most iconic aquatic species begins April 1 in the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries as well as in the Atlantic Ocean, coastal bays and their tributaries, reports the <a href=\"dnr.maryland.gov\">Maryland Department of Natural Resources<\/a>.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are pleased to offer multiple opportunities for anglers of all ages to catch Chesapeake Bay blue crabs,\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/fisheries\/Pages\/default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Fishing and Boating Services<\/a>\u00a0Director David Blazer said. \u201cWe wish everyone an enjoyable, safe and successful crabbing season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Crabbing in Maryland waters can be done a variety of ways, with or without a license depending on the equipment used, amount of crabs harvested and location.<\/p>\n<p>Recreational crabbing <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eregulations.com\/maryland\/fishing\/recreational-crabbing-licenses-crab-pot-restrictions\/\" target=\"_blank\">licenses are required<\/a> for anyone who uses a trotline, collapsible crab traps, net rings, seines or eel pots; or who catches more than two dozen hard crabs (with a limit of 1 bushel) or more than 1 dozen soft crabs or male peelers (with a limit of 2 dozen).\u00a0Crabbers using handlines or dip nets or catching beneath those stated limits do not require a license.<\/p>\n<p>An owner, lessee or tenant of a private shoreline property may use up to two crab pots \u2013 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eregulations.com\/maryland\/fishing\/recreational-crabbing-licenses-crab-pot-restrictions\/\" target=\"_blank\">appropriately registered<\/a> \u2013 without a license.\u00a0Crab pots used by waterfront property owners in Maryland <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=IJdHdwikFLU\" target=\"_blank\">must be fitted with a bycatch reduction or turtle excluder device<\/a> in every entry funnel, and be marked with the owner\u2019s name and address.<\/p>\n<p>A recreational crabbing license is not required in the Atlantic Ocean, coastal bays and their tributaries. Additionally, any passenger of a boat with a valid crabbing license doesn\u2019t need an individual license to crab.<\/p>\n<p>Please note that all recreational crabbers are prohibited from selling crabs or possessing an egg-bearing (sponge) crab or any female hard or peeler crab.<\/p>\n<p>The department\u2019s website contains <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eregulations.com\/maryland\/fishing\/recreational-crabbing-licenses-crab-pot-restrictions\/\" target=\"_blank\">information on who needs a license to crab<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Crabbers Can Get Cracking on State\u2019s Signature Catch It\u2019s crabbing season in Maryland! Recreational fishing for the state\u2019s most iconic aquatic species begins April 1 in the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries as well as in the Atlantic Ocean, coastal bays and their tributaries, reports the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[957,11],"tags":[2995,2982,2996,2997],"class_list":["post-13498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-fisheries","tag-atlantic-ocean","tag-chesapeake-bay","tag-crabs","tag-david-blazer"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13498"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13539,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13498\/revisions\/13539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}