BALTIMORE - Maryland and Virginia watermen are eligible for up to $20 million in crab disaster relief, federal officials announced Tuesday.

Each state will be eligible for as much as $10 million in relief to help watermen hurt by the failure of the Chesapeake Bay's soft shell and peeler blue crab fishery, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service said.

The two states must now submit plans outlining how the funds will be used.

Jim Balsiger, acting assistant administrator for NOAA's Fisheries Service, said the agency was pleased governors from both states have said they would like to use the federal aid to restore habitat and "create more diverse economic opportunities for watermen, possibly in aquaculture."

"We applaud their idea to use some aid to employ crab fishermen to retrieve lost or abandoned crab pots that continue to capture fish and crabs, doing long-term damage to the fishery," Balsiger added.

Virginia and Maryland asked U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez for the declaration in May, saying the industry was in danger of collapse. NOAA issued the declaration in September for the soft-shell fishery, saying the harvest value of soft shell and peeler blue crabs in Maryland and Virginia has declined by 41 percent from the late 1990s. While crabs are harvested as hard- and soft-shell crabs, NOAA determined the soft-shell industry had suffered more.

Last month, members of congress from Maryland and Virginia urged Gutierrez to immediately release $30 million in fishery disaster assistance.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said the announcement was great news. "This is about lives and livelihoods in a struggling economy," Mikulski said.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said the blue crab is one of Maryland's greatest symbols and the funds are critical for watermen and processors, particularly in tough economic times.

Last year, Virginia recorded a record-low harvest and Maryland had its lowest since 1945. In response, the two states have cut the female crab harvest more than a third and shortened the season. Virginia has also banned winter crab dredging, which was already banned in Maryland.

Similar disaster declarations have been made twice in the past three years for the Chinook salmon fishery in the Pacific Northwest, where a salmon collapse prompted a total harvesting ban earlier this year. Chesapeake senators argued that the blue crab fishery deserved similar aid.

In the Chesapeake, the crabbing industry had continued to thrived long after overfishing and pollution had decimated oysters and rockfish, also known as striped bass, which rebounded after a moratorium was issued in the 1980s. But the two threats eventually took their toll on blue crabs as well.

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley said the funding "supports our commitment to keep Maryland watermen working and protect the viability of the many local businesses that rely on blue crabs, while giving the species time to rebuild."

Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine said his state was exploring the possibility of transitioning crabbers into other fisheries and possibly initiating a buy back program to reduce the number of watermen harvesting crabs.

"While it is certainly not good news that our blue crab fishery is in a state of failure, we do know that the blue crab population can rebound if we reduce harvest pressure," Kaine said.