Survey: Chesapeake’s juvenile crab population is lowest since 1990

By The Associated Press
May 22, 2021 | 4:29 PM

SALISBURY, Md. — An annual survey of Chesapeake Bay blue crabs estimates that the population of juvenile crabs has fallen to its lowest level since the Maryland Department of Natural Resources started the survey more than 30 years ago.

The Salisbury Daily Times reports that the department’s review also found positive trends, including a rise in the bay’s population of spawning-age mature female crabs, from 141 million in 2020 to 158 million in 2021. The total abundance of blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay was 282 million, a below-average total largely attributed to the low juvenile numbers.

Fentanyl seizures plummet as Trump administration shifts focus to immigration

By Maryland Matters
August 22, 2026 | 8:26 PM

WASHINGTON — Fentanyl seizures decreased by 39% during the first year of the second Trump administration after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shifted the Department of Homeland Security’s criminal investigations arm to conducting immigration enforcement, according to a report government investigators published Friday. Agents with Homeland Security Investigations, a subagency of DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, reported an “all hands-on deck” environment toward immigration enforcement began in January 2025, according to the DHS Office of Inspector General report. “With ICE dedicating more staff hours to immigration investigations, staffing hours for fentanyl investigations declined,” the report said. The report found that the hours dedicated to fentanyl investigations for fiscal 2025 declined by more than 250,000 hours, or 31%, compared to fiscal 2024.

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