A group of Virginia watermen will meet Wednesday night to discuss filing a class-action lawsuit against government officials over the decline of the Chesapeake Bay.

The Virginia Waterman's Association meeting at 7 p.m. Kilmarnock follows significant new crabbing regulations in Virginia, which state officials say are increasingly necessary to prevent commercial overfishing.

Fishery regulators in Maryland and Virginia say the crab population is nearing dangerous lows. This month, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission is expected to vote on cutting by as much as 30 percent the number of crab pots a waterman may put in the bay and its tributaries during the season, which runs through November 30.

Many watermen, however, complain that poor water quality and the degraded Chesapeake are being overlooked as factors in the blue crab decline.