Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
WASHINGTON The latest public education campaign from the Chesapeake Bay Program promotes awareness of the need to save the bay's famous blue crabs in order to eat them.
One television ad begins with water running down a storm drain as a narrator warns that spring rains can carry excess fertilizer into sewers and rivers to the bay, causing crabs to "suffocate slowly from lack of oxygen."
Then a crab fills the screen, lying still as waves wash over it. "No crab should die like this," the announcer says.
"They should perish in some hot, tasty, melted butter," he continues, dipping a morsel of crabmeat into a bowl and eating it.
The television spots, billboards and print ads, targeting the taste buds of diners throughout the Washington area, began this month and will run until mid-April. Each ad in the $620,000 campaign which encourages, for the sake of the crustaceans, waiting until fall to fertilize lawns emphasizes the bay's primary role as the source of seafood for the region. The crabs' mating season is from May to October.
With the slogan "Save the Crabs Then Eat 'Em," the campaign packs an unexpected punch from an organization whose typical news releases are about cleanups or dam removals.
[...]
Not everyone is a fan of the ads.
Karin Robertson, head of the Fish Empathy Project for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in Norfolk, Va., said that although promoting awareness about pollutants in the Chesapeake Bay was a worthy cause, promoting the consumption of fish was wrong not only because of animal cruelty issues, but because of contaminants, such as mercury and lead, in aquatic life...
musicman said:I played a two-week gig in Norfolk some years back. One day, the band decided that we'd go down to the pier on Cheaspeake Bay and catch our supper. We caught a few fish that are called "spot", and decided to cut them up in order to bait crab traps. We couldn't figure out why the locals were chuckling at us, until one of them finally told us what was going on.
Turned out that spot are a really desirable fish, while crabs are so plentiful as to be considered pests. Here we were, basically using filet mignon as bait to pull in Big Macs. I just know that some of the home-towners were saying, "These guys have GOT to be musicians!"
dilloduck said:LOL reminds of th first time I trout fished in CO. I was the only one catching up but pitching all the little buggers back until a local asked me if I just didn't like to eat fish. I replied that they were too small too even clean. I was informed that it was a big as they get in that area and told if I didn't want em,they DID. Texas bass fishing had spoiled me I guess.
I love crabbin tho even if some people think they are pests--my son and I hang out on the piers in the gulf late at night and have a blast catching them buggers while we have a few lines in the water for fish. Good times indeed !!musicman said:LOL - everything's bigger in Texas!
I dragged a four-foot eel out of the bay that same day - ugliest s.o.b. you ever saw! A couple of old black guys asked me what I was going to do with it. I gave it to them, and they started cutting it up right there on the pier. No accounting for taste, I guess!
dilloduck said:I love crabbin tho even if some people think they are pests--my son and I hang out on the piers in the gulf late at night and have a blast catching them buggers while we have a few lines in the water for fish. Good times indeed !!
musicman said:I like to fish, even though I don't get much chance to do it these days. Sometimes, when I'm feeling mellow and the beer is cold, I even make a deal with the fish. I'll drop a line in the water, crack open a brew, and say, "All right - if you guys don't bother me, I won't bother you".
dilloduck said:I hear ya-----------more fun watching my kid try everything in the world to bring some kinda sea creature up on the dock!
