Buying Back Crabbing Licenses

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) Virginia officials are optimistic about the effort to buy crab licenses in a bid to replenish stocks of the Chesapeake Bay blue crab.

Officials have released few details of the $6.7 million effort, saying they don't want to influence bidding, which ends November 1st.

But the Virginia Marine Resources Commission doesn't expect the effort to end the way Maryland's did last month.

Maryland scrapped reverse auctions and instead offered $2,260 for each license.

The states want to reduce the number of outstanding licenses, many of which are inactive and make it difficult to manage the crab population.

The VMRC hopes that because it has a larger pool of money and fewer licenses than Maryland, its plan will be more successful.