Dan Knott, founder of the Gloucester-based nonprofit organization Knott Alone-Hold Fast, was less than a week into crab season last Friday and had already hit a rough spot. A cold spell set in, and he and his partner, Nick Barnes, fished only two bushels of crabs out of their crab pots.

“The water’s rough and the weather’s cold, and it stops the crabs’ activity,” Knott said, as he and Barnes carried their catch off the boat and onto land.

The good thing was that fully half of the catch—a whole bushel—was jimmies (males), which bring in double the price of sooks (females).Keeping up with the crabbing is bad enough, said Knott, but on top of that there are buoys to paint, boats to work on, gear to maintain, and a dock that needs work. Then there’s the problem with finding a market for crabs. He said he hopes enough workers will get approved for the federal H2B migrant worker program this year for the picking houses to open. Last year, a major one had to remain closed because it di...