by Larry Chowning
Virginia’s commercial crab pot season opened on March 17 but coronavirus has local seafood businesses and crabbers wondering what type of crab market this season will bring.
There are three crab markets for watermen within the state’s crab fishery. Watermen working crab pots supply female (sooks) crabs to picking houses where the meat is picked, packaged and sold to grocery stores and restaurants. Customers buy the meat to make crab cakes.
That market has been soft of late as area picking houses have closed because the labor pool of crab pickers has…
