Maryland seafood industry to get help with temporary worker visas

Producing crab meat isn’t just a profitable industry in Maryland — it’s an art. That art, mastered by seafood processors along the Maryland shore, is threatened by a lack of workers, according to Jack Brooks, president of the Chesapeake Bay Seafood Industries Association. “We’re food manufacturers. You know, we were declared essential during the pandemic, provided we had staffing, but it’s very, very difficult to operate like this,” said Brooks, who is also the co-owner of J.M. Clayton Seafood Company. For years, Brooks said, employers in the seafood industry have struggled to obtain enough H-2B visas — temporary nonagricultural worker permits — to properly staff crab and seafood businesses.