Letters to the Editor
We welcome your opinions and letters – with name and address. We will edit when necessary. Include your name, address and phone number for verification. Mail them to Bay Weekly, P.O. Box 358, Deale, MD 20751 •
E-mail them to [email protected]. or submit your letters on line, click here
The Burton Fan Club
Dear Bay Weekly:
Please include me as one of the Bill Burton fan club!
It is one of my favorite segments of the Bay Weekly, and I look forward to reading it every week. In a sense, he has become a friend as I read about his activities and thoughts. His warmth, his sense of humor, his vast knowledge are always evident.
I remember with special joy his appearance at the Winter Luncheon at the Captain Salem Avery House Museum several years ago. He was superb!
Among the subjects of his columns that I particular enjoy are those dealing with his granddaughter. Their relationship is so heartwarming, as they garden together without too much luck, and he shares his philosophy with her.
Because he and I are of the same vintage, I can relate so well to his experiences in his youth.
I wish to join those paying tribute to Bill Burton on his 15 years of writing for your excellent newspaper.
–Mavis Daly, Shady Side
Burton Should Write a Book
Dear Bay Weekly:
I wondered whether anyone has ever approached Bay Weekly or Mr. Burton about turning a selection of his columns (and perhaps bits of other things he wrote) into a book. While a retrospective edition of the paper is a lovely idea, and I’m looking forward to reading it, a book might display his breadth of knowledge, his keen perspective and his delightfully unique voice in greater depth. It would be something that his devoted readers and even Granddaughter Grumpy would cherish and re-read for years to come.
I’ll even suggest a title: Enough Said.
–Jerri Bell, Chesapeake Beach
To Save Crabs, Save the Females
Dear Bay Weekly:
I have heard so many reasons for why the crab population is declining — most of them ignorant.
Once there were no deer in Maryland, except in the western part of the state. The Department of Natural Resources trapped deer in western Maryland and released them in every county in the state. Upon their release, hunters [were] not allowed to hunt does. Today there are more deer than ever, and we have controlled hunts to control deer population.
Once wild turkeys were only found in western Maryland. DNR trapped turkeys and released them in every county. Hunters were not allowed to hunt females. Now wild turkeys can be found in every county in the state.
The same protection given female deer and wild turkeys needs to be provided to protect female crabs.
The argument that recreational crabbers are catching as many crabs as commercial crabbers is just not true. I’ve seen commercial crabbers in the fall catch 100 or more bushels a day. These crabs were pregnant and headed down the Bay to spawn, but never made it because they were caught by the commercial crabber.
If the same DNR officials who instituted the rules regarding the harvesting of female deer and wild turkeys still work for the DNR, would they please institute these same regulations for the female crabs in order to save the crab population? If those officials no longer work there, please hire them back, or plead with those who [work] there [now] to learn from the past.
If all the women in Maryland suddenly disappeared, there would no longer be any offspring. The same goes for crabs. Please stop the harvesting of female crabs before there are no longer any crabs in the Chesapeake Bay.
Goose season has been closed to save the geese. Rockfish season has been closed to save the rockfish.
Why not close the season to save the female hard crabs?
—Captain Alvin ‘Butler’ Knopp, Deale
