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MD Seafood Industry Gets Boost from H-2B Visa Program

Don Rush

BALTIMORE (AP) - Maryland's seafood industry could benefit from President Donald Trump's administration permitting 15,000 more foreign workers to enter the United States under a visa program.

The Baltimore Sun reported on Monday that seafood producers will share the national allotment with other industries and are expected to be able to apply this week. Each year crab-picking and oyster-shucking houses have relied on a small number of workers allowed in the country on H-2B visas, which permit foreigners to take temporary nonagricultural jobs.

Chesapeake Bay Seafood Industries Association president Jack Brooks says the hope is it all can be handled quickly enough to add relief to salvage the end of the season.

The Sun reports that labor statistics show the seafood industry is the best known beneficiary of the visa program in Maryland.

Don Rush is the News Director at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.