I grew up in Virginia beach since age 7, after moving here from Ohio.  As a young boy and teenager I have vivid memories of blue crabs.  During the summer all of the neighborhood kids would purchase chicken legs and head to the apartment complexes boat dock.

We would than tie one piece of chick to a string of chicken and toss it in. Before you knew it, there were 20 or so lines in the water.  Eventually, the lines would tighten and we would net our crabs.  This would go on for hours.  Eventually we had several coolers and boxes full of yummy blue crabs.  That night we would cook'em up and eat!  That was in the early 80's.

Fast forward to 2007.  I haven't crabbed for years and today I read a story in our local newspaper.  In 1997, the peak of the crab harvest reach 39,777,238  and it has declined ever since.  The latest numbers came in for 2006 at 22,529,918.  This is prompting the Virginia Marine Resource Commission to recommend that the state continue a freeze on new crabbing licenses through 2010!