For centuries, people at Rock Hall have made their living on the water, and early accounts say fishermen hauled in enormous amounts of rockfish, which some believe gave the town its name. Watermen who work the Chesapeake Bay harvest different seafood with the seasons, including blue crabs in summer, oysters in fall, striped bass or perch in winter, and eels, catfish, yellow perch, and soft shell claims in spring. Many waterman families have worked in the Bay’s seafood industry for several generations. As the Bay’s health weakened over the last half of the 20th century, making a living on the water became increasingly difficult, seafood populations continued to decline, and fishing regulations increased, leaving remaining watermen to struggle to profit from an increasingly scarce resource. Rock Hall’s annual Waterman’s Day, held on the Fourth of July, celebrates the men and women who make their living from local waters. Watermen have used tools including pound nets, crab pots, and oyster tongs.