Va. blue crab season opens with a bang

Virginia’s blue crab season opened strong Monday as watermen returned to Chesapeake Bay docks with bushels full of the normally dormant crustacean.??

“This is unprecedented. We’ve never seen it this early,” said Johnny Graham, president of Hampton-based Graham & Rollins Seafood, one of the state’s largest crab processing plants.??

The state’s commercial crab season begins every March, but the first few weeks are usually lean because most crabs have not stirred from their winter resting spots at the bay floor. This year is different because warm air temperatures — 3 to 7 degrees above normal since November — kept the bay and its tributaries from getting too cold.

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