WASHINGTON — It’s a Chesapeake Bay smackdown!

The governors of Maryland and Virginia are slinging a little trash talk — over blue crabs.

“You know, Maryland talks about their crabs,” Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said with a chuckle on a WRVA radio show recently.

“If anyone from Maryland is listening, I want to make this perfectly clear: All the crabs are born here in Virginia and they end up, because of the current, being taken there (to Maryland). So really, they should be Virginia crabs,” McAuliffe said.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan defends the honor of Maryland crabs with the following statement sent to WTOP:

“While a number of Chesapeake Bay crabs may in fact be born in Virginia, they rightfully return to the State of Maryland where they survive and thrive — in our more welcoming, less salty waters. In fact, like most Virginians with any sense, the Virginia crabs eventually move north and become Marylanders.”

It’s all in good fun, with McAuliffe even joking about asking the Virginia Marine Resources Commission to find a way to prevent the northern migration of juvenile Chesapeake Bay crabs to Maryland.

“Stop them. I talk to all of our folks, John Bull and all the others at VMRC: Can’t we put something up to stop them from leaving?” McAuliffe inquired, tongue in cheek.