{"id":32938,"date":"2021-04-01T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=32938"},"modified":"2021-04-01T08:08:37","modified_gmt":"2021-04-01T12:08:37","slug":"marylands-recreational-crabbing-season-now-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2021\/04\/01\/marylands-recreational-crabbing-season-now-open\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland\u2019s Recreational Crabbing Season Now Open"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div style=\"width: 369px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/1862\/29808805207_f22481cf21.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/1862\/29808805207_f22481cf21.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of reflection of four young crabbers with a dip net\" width=\"359\" height=\"287\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo by by Christine Edwards, First Place winner in the Summer category, 2018 <a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/Pages\/photocontest.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Maryland Natural Resources Photo Contest<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The recreational crabbing season in Maryland officially opens April 1 for the Chesapeake Bay and tidal tributaries as well as in the Atlantic Ocean, coastal bays and their tributaries.<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Recreational crabbing in Maryland can be done a variety of ways, with or without a license depending on the equipment and location. <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eregulations.com\/maryland\/fishing\/recreational-crab-licenses-crab-pot-registration\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Licenses are required<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for anyone who uses a trotline, collapsible crab traps, net rings, seines or eel pots.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A license is not required for anyone using handlines or dip nets. In addition, waterfront property owners, lessees, or tenants of a private shoreline property can <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eregulations.com\/maryland\/fishing\/recreational-crab-licenses-crab-pot-registration\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">register<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to crab license-free using up to two crab pots.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">To protect other aquatic species, all crab pots used by waterfront property owners in Maryland must be fitted with a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=IJdHdwikFLU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">bycatch reduction or turtle excluder device<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in every entry funnel. Pots must also be marked with the owner\u2019s name and address or <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/compass.dnr.maryland.gov\/dnrcompassportal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">DNR identification number<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A recreational crabbing license is not required in the Atlantic Ocean or coastal bays and their tributaries. Additionally, any passenger of a boat with a valid crabbing license doesn\u2019t need an individual license to crab.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">All recreational crabbers are prohibited from selling crabs or possessing an egg-bearing (sponge) crab or any female hard or peeler crab.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">More information on crabbing licenses, restrictions, possession limits and size limits is available in the <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eregulations.com\/maryland\/fishing\/blue-crabs\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">2021 Maryland Guide to Fishing and Crabbing.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The recreational crabbing season in Maryland officially opens April 1 for the Chesapeake Bay and tidal tributaries as well as in the Atlantic Ocean, coastal bays and their tributaries.<\/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":[2995,3905,2982,3312,4335,5044],"class_list":["post-32938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-fisheries","tag-atlantic-ocean","tag-blue-crab","tag-chesapeake-bay","tag-coastal-bays","tag-crabbing","tag-fishing"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32938","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=32938"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32988,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32938\/revisions\/32988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}