Talk:Blue crab

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[edit] Style

People or organizations supply things. Unless the state governments are doing the supplying, it is incorrect to say that states are doing the supplying. In this case, the NC and TX governments are not the suppliers, it is fishery companies in those states. Therefore, it is correct to say that the crabs are shipped in from those states.

I see your point, but it could easily be fixed by saying "supplied from" rather than "supplied by". The reason I changed it is because the version previously (and now restored) is ambiguous. "Shipped in" refers to where? Are you saying that crabs from NC and TX are "shipped in" to Maryland? Or "shipped in" to other states? If the former, then it should be rephrased as "meeting local demand" to emphasize that Marylanders can't get enough even from their own bay. If the latter, then it should use the "supplied from" language to show that NC and TX are needed to supply places all over the US. Since you are the one standing behind the assertion, I'll let you decide the solution. Thanks. Fuzheado | Talk 08:15, 22 Jul 2004 (UTC)

You bring up an interesting point, but changing "shipped in from" to "supplied by" does not change the ambiguity in question. (If the sentence were worded "...meeting demand, so crabs are shipped out from NC and TX..." THEN the crabs' destination would be ambiguous!) I don't really see it as being terribly ambiguous, though — the sentence is about the Chesa. Bay, so nobody is going to assume that we are referring to NC and TX shipping crabs elsewhere. -- tooki 02:29, 23 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I've added "local" just to put this to rest. It is no sin to include some redudancy to make sure a point comes across, and this is one of those cases. Fuzheado | Talk 04:26, 23 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] "...the Bay..." vs "...the bay..."

In the previous clause, it is established which bay is in question, so lowercase "bay" is used -- it's a generic rather than a proper name (or an abbreviated proper name). To elucidate this, let's substitute some different names:

"While blue crabs remain a popular food in the Washington, DC area, the city is not capable of meeting demand, so crabs are shipped in from North Carolina and Texas as well."

works fine while

"...Washington, DC area, the City is not capable..."

looks silly (and is incorrect), because "City" is not a proper name, it's a generic, and generics are not capitalized.

--tooki 06:50, 22 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Re: "bay" vs. "Bay", we are in agreement. Fuzheado | Talk 08:15, 22 Jul 2004 (UTC)