With no anticipation of a healthier bay any time soon, and reports of the lowest crab harvest in Virginia history in hand, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission has done the only thing it could do: It has said it will set new rules limiting the number of crabs watermen may remove from the bay and the periods of time in which they may do it.

Maryland followed suit with new restrictions of its own, knowing that the two states must work in tandem to prevent the blue crab’s numbers from dwindling to a point from which it cannot recover. Researchers say the bay’s blue crab population is a third of what it was just 15 years ago.

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