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Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Maryland's Blue Crabs Attract Thieves, Illegal Harvesters

Maryland’s famed blue crabs are luring illegal harvesters and thieves, according to a review by the News4 I-Team.

Records obtained from the Maryland Natural Resources Police show investigators issued more than 3,300 citations or formal warnings to people poaching or illegally harvesting crabs since 2014. Some of the violations risk the livelihoods of the state’s professional watermen and future populations of crabs in state waterways.

In one of those cases in August, a judge convicted Robert Allen Dorrier of Pasadena for a string thefts of crabs from the pots of professional watermen on the Chesapeake Bay. Witnesses at Dorrier’s trial in Anne Arundel County District Court said he used a small green boat to approach and empty the pots. One witness, who declined to share his name with News4, said Dorrier was seen doing so just before 6 p.m. after the professional watermen left the area for the evening.

“He was going pot to pot every 30 seconds, taking the pots and throwing them back without closing the lids,” the witness said.

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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

In Maryland, I don't even want to hear the term "professional waterman". I raised my family in AA County.

Anonymous said...

Good ole network especially in dorchester county.

Anonymous said...

I crab commercially in the Assawoman Bay and I can tell you that even worse than people stealing the crabs are the careless tourists that run right over the pots and cut the corks off. The tourists come out in rental boats and act carelessly. That is why so many ended up dead this year. It's hard to turn a profit losing two pots every day. Saw two thiefs so brazen that they took the whole pot and ran away on a jet ski.

Anonymous said...

meanwhile politically connected omega corp rapes the bay of menhaden and there's not a damn thing anybody will do about it! way to go DNR, NMFS, MD and VA! but w got the little guy! total BS!

Anonymous said...

Anonymous Anonymous said...
In Maryland, I don't even want to hear the term "professional waterman". I raised my family in AA County.

September 14, 2016 at 6:13 PM

why not? beside the fact you are from aa county

LastMohican said...

good way to get shot messing with someone's crabs and livelihood.

Anonymous said...

2:57: Good way to go to prison for shooting someone who is stealing. That a dumb redneck comment. Best you remain "unknown"