Maryland’s seafood industry depends on several hundred guest workers--most from Mexico--working half the year on the Eastern Shore to pick crabs. This year, few of those workers came: the seafood processing companies could not get enough H-2B visas.
We ask Congressman Andy Harris, who represents the Shore: Are more visas on the way? Then, Bill Seiling, director of the nonprofit Chesapeake Bay Seafood Industries Association explains how long Maryland's seafood industry has relied on foreign labor. And Jack Brooks, co-owner of a seafood company in Cambridge, argues the shortage of foreign workers affects the security of American jobs.
Read more about the shortage of H-2B visas here:
Baltimore Sun - Crab crisis: Maryland seafood industry loses 40 percent of work force in visa lottery
Voice of America - No Immigrant Workers, No Crab Meat
Delmarva Now - Shortage of blue crab pickers forces Maryland seafood shops to shut down
