The Chesapeake Bay, in Maryland, is where it all began. “Chesapeake” is a Susquehanock word meaning “great shellfish bay.” For centuries many people have enjoyed the bounty of blue crab, along with other delicious forms of seafood, found in the Bay.
Native Americans were the first to discover the bounty provided by the blue crab crustaceans in the great bay. Several European settlers stake claim to first discovering this place to catch crab. But, undoubtedly native people led European settlers to this fine place for hunting, fishing and crabbing.
Maryland Blue crabs have been caught and harvested commercially in the Chesapeake Bay area since the mid 1800s. Now, these crabs are harvested from the mid-Atlantic region (from New York to North Carolina) to Florida and several of the Gulf states, all the way to Texas. Pre-settlement blue crabs were harvested for subsistence living. There is evidence suggesting that Native Americans used spears to catch crabs in shallow water and that they may have fashioned simple traps to gig crab. During colonial times, many people survived based solely on their ability to catch crab in this region. Records show, as early as 1850, a market for soft-shelled blue crabs on the Eastern Coast of America.
Significant level of consumption fueled the demand for blue crabs in the mid-1800s. The first toothless dredge for harvesting soft-shelled crabs was patented in 1870. During this period, fishermen began using nets to harvest hard-shelled blue crab as well. In the 1870s the evolution of a commercial crabbing industry began to emerge. Railroads permitted rapid shipping of blue crab away from the coast, canning of crabmeat began and wooden boats began replacing fishing lines with scoop nets as means to catch crab. Trotlines were also developed around this time; a long line anchored at both ends with shorter lines, baited to catch crab. Trotlines remained the standard harvesting method through the 1950s and the first crab trap was patented as early as 1926.
The crabbing industry has changed as populations have changed and as the need to be more productive and efficient has risen. For crab fishermen, also known as “watermen,” the benefits of crab harvesting must always be balanced with the need to sustain the dwindling crab population, especially in the Chesapeake Bay region.
Crab harvesting has long been a part of Maryland, Chesapeake Bay and human culture. Harvesting crabs, oysters and fish supports life in the waterfront communities of the Eastern Coast shore. Many people living in these communities could tell you what time of day it is just by the coming and going of the boats in the harbor. This way of life is changing, and in many ways slipping away, due to modern conventions and the evolving bay. Yet the Chesapeake Bay in Crisfield, Maryland, where it all began, is still known as the crab capital of the world.
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