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Photograph of a steamboat wharf at Riverton

Postcard of Tawes & Gibson's Mill and Wharf on Waterfront in Crisfield, MD.

Photograph of railway wharf, Deal Island.

Until the 20th century, only softshell crabs were considered worth eating.

These are old-fashioned crab floats on Smith Island. The production of soft crabs has changed very little over the years. Covered tanks on land and often under shelter have replaced traditional floats and made harvesting somewhat easier.

A photograph of a woman picking clams.

Postcard of Smith Island, MD, Somerset County.

Here are Claude Marvel and Skid in the same plywood boat. Claude is holding up a 40-pound rock. This whopper had to be thrown back by law, but Claude sure was tickled to catch it.

Photograph of clam farmers. Chincoteague watermen have a developed maricultural and can harvest clams on order. The smallest specimens are sold for eating on the half-shell, the middle-sized for restaurant chowder. The largest go into manufactured…

Rosy, an eight-year-old oyster shucker who works steady all day from about 3:00 A.M. to about 5 P.M. in Dunbar Cannery. The baby will shuck as soon as she can handle the knife. Location: Dunbar, Louisiana.