Representatives of Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources briefed a panel of state legislators on the status of the state’s blue crab population. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced in November that Maryland and Virginia would each be eligible for $10-million to help those affected by the failure of the Chesapeake Bay’s soft shell and peeler blue crab fishery. Senator Ben Cardin has said watermen are in desperate need of the relief because the blue crab population has declined 70-percent since the 1990s Last week, NOAA officials sent Maryland a letter informing the state that $2.2-million of the $10 million in the three-year relief plan has been approved.