Chesapeake Bay’s crabs dwindling

The Chesapeake Bay’s famous blue crabs -- feisty crustaceans that are both a regional symbol and a multimillion-dollar catch -- are hovering at historically low population levels, scientists say, as pollution, climate change and overfishing threaten the bay’s ultimate survivor.

This fall, a committee of federal and state scientists found that the crab population was at its second-lowest level in the last 17 years, having fallen to about one-third the population of 1993. They forecast that the current crabbing season will produce one of the lowest harvests since 1945.

This year’s numbers are particularly distressing, scientists say, because they signal that a baywide effort to save the crab begun in 2001 is falling short. Governments promised to clean the Chesapeake’s waters by 2010. But that effort is far off track, leaving “dead zones” where crabs can’t breathe.