Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners 69 



SURVEY OF CRABBING GROUNDS. 



In accordance with Section 96 of the Haman Oyster Culture 

 Law the areas beneath the tide waters of Somerset County 28 

 where grass grows and it is profitable to scrape for soft shell or 

 shedder crabs, have been designated on charts with the natural 

 oyster bars and have been excluded from leasing for the pur- 

 poses of oyster culture. 



The approximate location and extent of crabbing grounds 

 were pointed out by the local assistant to the hydrographic 

 engineer, he being as familiar with the crabbing grounds as 

 with the oyster-producing bottoms. 



The verification by the hydrographic engineer of the location 

 of these grounds and the determination of their limits was ren- 

 dered easy in Somerset County by the fact that the period 

 during which scraping for crabs was being carried on was the 

 same (May 1 to October 1) as that covered by survey opera- 

 tions. No better evidence could be desired of the existence of a 

 crabbing ground than the presence upon it of boats scraping for 

 crabs and, by locating such boats at various places on each 

 ground by sets of sextant angles and plotting the positions of 

 the same on the charts, the extent of each ground was ascer- 

 tained. To ascertain the exact limits of each ground lines were 

 run in a launch or pulling boat over the edges of the ground 

 and the point on each line Where grassy and naked bottoms 

 meet was located with sextant angles and plotted on charts. 



The six-foot curve (mean low water) was found to mark 

 approximately not only the outer limit for the growth of grass, 

 but the inner limit for the growth of oysters and in many 

 cases crabbing grounds were found to begin where oyster 

 grounds ended : for example in Big Annemessex and Manokin 

 Rivers and on the west side of Tangier Sound above Kedge 

 Straits. In such cases the ins and outs of the lines marking 



28it not being lawful to scrape for crabs in the waters of and adjacent 

 to Anne Arundel County, the areas where grass grows in said County 

 were not surveyed or charted. 



