Md. Company In Asian Crab Sustainability Effort

SALISBURY, Md. (AP) -- An Eastern Shore seafood company is partnering in an effort to ensure the sustainability of Asian crab harvests.

Salisbury-based Handy International says it's working with a dozen other U.S. importers of crabmeat from Indonesia and the Philippines. The effort is designed to end the harvesting of undersized blue swimming crabs.

The importers are members of the Crab Council of the National Fisheries Institute. They began observing self-imposed minimum catch sizes this month to ensure the sustainability of Asian blue crab populations, which account for nearly 70 percent of imported crab meat in the United States.

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