{"id":20812,"date":"2018-03-29T12:00:47","date_gmt":"2018-03-29T16:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=20812"},"modified":"2018-03-30T15:15:50","modified_gmt":"2018-03-30T19:15:50","slug":"maryland-crabbing-season-begins-april-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2018\/03\/29\/maryland-crabbing-season-begins-april-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland Crabbing Season Begins April 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Full Steam Ahead for Catching State’s Favorite Crustacean\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Photo

“Blue on a Lid” by Joe Subolefsky<\/p><\/div>\n

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources<\/a> announces that the blue crab season officially opens April 1 in Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries as well as the Atlantic Ocean and coastal bays.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe beginning of blue crab season is a Maryland tradition,\u201d\u00a0Fishing and Boating Services Director David Blazer said. “Crabbing is a unique and rewarding experience that offers everyone a great day on Maryland’s beautiful waters, a firsthand look at the environment of one of our iconic species, and finally an enjoyable feast that’s defined our state’s culture for generations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are a lot of different ways to catch blue crab in Maryland. Anyone joining the hunt for Callinectes sapidus<\/em>\u00a0– which means “savory, beautiful swimmer” — should acquaint themselves first with the state’s rules and regulations<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Recreational crabbing\u00a0licenses<\/a> are required\u00a0for anyone who uses a collapsible crab traps, eel pots, net rings, seines or trotline; 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).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Owners, lessee or tenants of private shoreline properties can also crab without a license; they may use up to two registered crab pots<\/a>, but they\u00a0must be fitted with a bycatch reduction or turtle excluder device<\/a>\u00a0in every entry funnel and be marked with the owner\u2019s name and address.<\/p>\n

A recreational crabbing license is not required in the Atlantic Ocean or coastal bays. Additionally, any passenger of a boat with a valid crabbing license doesn\u2019t need an individual license to crab.<\/p>\n

All recreational crabbers are prohibited from selling crabs or possessing an egg-bearing (sponge) crab or any female hard or peeler crab. More information is available online<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Full Steam Ahead for Catching State’s Favorite Crustacean\u00a0 The Maryland Department of Natural Resources announces that the blue crab season officially opens April 1 in Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries as well as the Atlantic Ocean and coastal bays. \u201cThe beginning of blue crab season is a Maryland tradition,\u201d\u00a0Fishing and Boating Services Director David  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/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":[2995,3905,4336,2982,4335,2997,4337,3340],"class_list":["post-20812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-fisheries","tag-atlantic-ocean","tag-blue-crab","tag-bycatch-reduction-device","tag-chesapeake-bay","tag-crabbing","tag-david-blazer","tag-turtle-excluder-device","tag-turtles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20812","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=20812"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20931,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20812\/revisions\/20931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}