and its the same reason why we don't have agricultural investments in automated harvesting of vegetables - why bother when the migrant farm workers work for next to nothing. maybe someone could invent a machine that cracked crabs and harvested the meat, but we will never know because no one invests to invent one. its the same thing in industries going to china - why can't we have US based automated assembly of furniture for example? at least we would provide some jobs here in the US in the industries needed to support the automated machinery, instead of sending it all to china.
It's been done, and proved to be less than desirable. Have you ever eaten blue crabs? A Maryland crab cake? If so, do you prefer your crab meat "mashed" from an automatic crab picker? Or would you prefer to bite into a good sized back-fin lump?
Already, back-fin costs close to $15 a pound. Want to pay double the minimum wage and pay $25 or more per pound?
By the way, I catch my blue crabs at my dock, and pick them myself. Eat your heart out.