Northern Neck Real Estate is prime property, especially Northern Neck waterfront property.

Prices have lowered and there are some good deals on waterfront homes and waterfront lots.

If you have not created an account to search the Northern Neck Multiple Listings then please do so. 

You might find that perfect retirement home or second property. Start by clicking HERE 

Virginia bay town turns away payday lender

By the Associated Press

March 18, 2008

KILMARNOCK, Va. - There's no welcome mat for payday lenders in the town of Kilmarnock.

The town council voted down a request Monday night to allow payday-lending company Advance America to open an office in the Northern Neck community.

The council voted after a short public hearing at which ministers, business owners and social advocates spoke against allowing cash-advance businesses in commercial zones.

The district manager for Advance America–which runs a cash advance business in nearby Warsaw–said the company wanted to open an office in Kilmarnock to meet local demand.

Virginia's General Assembly this session passed legislation capping the fees and interest rates that payday lenders can charge.

Easter weekend was cool here in the Northern Neck. The days before we had tempertures in the 70's but late Saturday night a front came through and bought the cooler tempertures.

Trees have started to bloom as well as some flowers. The water temperature has warmed so it won't be long before crabs start to run and the fish start biting.

Take a weekend and ride down to experience the beauty property owners have here in the Northern Neck and if you like what you see then give me a call and we'll see if we can't find you that perfect piece of Northern Neck Real Estate.

Waterfront property in the Northern Neck is priced better than it has been in in years.

There are some exceptional prices out there if you compare them to the last 3 years.

Waterfront lots seem to be the best price of the the different catergories.

It looks like if you look at what people are asking for a waterfront home in the Northern Neck and you price it on X number of dollars per square foot and then add the price of what lots are selling for then I think the homes are a little high.

Keep search the Northern Neck MLS and give me a call.

Tougher crabbing limits are set in Virginia

Harsher restraints may come in April if numbers worsen, say regulators

Copied from the Times Dispatch. These regs will make it much rougher on Northern Neck and Chesapeake Bay crabbers. 

By LAWRENCE LATANE III

TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

NEWPORT NEWS — State regulators passed new limits on the blue crab harvest and promised more to come after a bleak public hearing on the economically important species yesterday.

The measures enacted unanimously by the Virginia Marine Resources Commission are expected "to go a long way towards restoring this iconic resource for the commonwealth," commissioner Steve Bowman said.

Watermen packed the commission's meeting room and complained that water pollution — not harvest — has driven the crab population to its lowest point in decades.

"In this context of a declining ecosystem, today's fishing is tomorrow's overfishing," said Williamsburg waterman Kelly Place.

Many of the eight commissioners agreed but said the only tools immediately available to improve crab numbers are mandatory restrictions that will leave more crabs in the water to multiply.

Rules approved yesterday will go into effect on the March 17 opening of this year's crabbing season.

They include a requirement for watermen to leave two escape hatches open in all crab pots no matter where they are set. Previously, watermen crabbing in the mainstem of the bay and parts of the Eastern Shore had been able to crab legally with only one of the escape hatches open.

The hatches allow undersized crabs, especially small females, to avoid capture. Called cull rings, the hatches were mandated in 1996 when the commission enacted a series of 22 measures designed to reduce fishing pressure on blue crabs.

Last year, a commission study panel concluded the early restrictions had failed to buoy the crab population. It recommended that new conservation measures be implemented this spring.

The study panel said crab numbers have plunged 70 percent since 1991 and pointed out that the crab population is so low it has been overfished seven out of the past 10 years.

The commission said it needs to wait until its April 22 meeting to consider even harsher restraints on crab harvesting.

A Chesapeake Bay census of hibernating blue crabs is expected by April 1; scientists fear it may show the crab in even deeper trouble.

If the survey is as bad as expected, the commission will consider reducing by half the number of crab pots that watermen can fish for both hard crabs and "peelers," which produce high-priced soft crabs.

The commission also voted unanimously yesterday to advertise for public hearing at its April meeting a measure to curtail or close Virginia's historic winter crab dredge fishery. Totaling more than 300 boats a couple of decades ago, the fleet has shrunk to 55 this year because of declining catches, low prices and rising boat operating costs.

Watermen told the commission that they are as endangered as the crab seems to be.

"You're putting us out of business," said Tangier Island waterman Charles Pruitt.

But Bowman said doing nothing puts the crab population in danger of collapse. "If something is not done, I fear you won't have any crabs to deal with later on."
Contact Lawrence Latané III at (804) 333-3461 or llatane@timesdispatch.com.

Find out more about the Virginia Waterman 

The best way to keep up with the real estate market in the Northern Neck is to create an account to search the Northern Neck MLS.

New listings are added daily. Prices change. The biggest advantage to create an account is that you can save or search criteria and be notified by email when your criteria is met.

Don't wait. Create your account today and be on top of this market. Where you can find waterfront property, farms, golf course homes, and acreage.

Call Ken Smith for all your real estate needs. 

The Virginian-Pilot
© February 27, 2008

NEWPORT NEWS

Virginia officials approved a spate of new rules Tuesday for harvesting blue crabs from the Chesapeake Bay, in the hope of restoring stocks of the seafood favorite, whose numbers have whittled to near-record lows in recent years.

The Virginia Marine Resources Commission voted unanimously for the changes at a tense, standing-room-only meeting in Newport News. Commission members also signaled that even more dramatic reforms are likely coming in the run-up to this year’s crabbing season , which begins March 17.

At the meeting packed with mostly angry commercial crabbers, critics denounced the new regulations as further examples of poor state management of the prized crab fishery, a staple in Virginia and Maryland for centuries. They predicted the rules will do little but cause

economic pain.

“We’re not going to survive this,” said Charles Pruitt, a waterman from Tangier Island, a commercial fishing hub in the middle of the Bay. “You might as well throw us out now; we’ve been regulated to death already.”

Beginning this season, the marine commission will require two escape hatches, or cull rings, to remain open on crab pots throughout the Bay – a move intended to give undersized female crabs a better chance to survive and spawn.

Commission members also increased the minimum size limit for peeler crabs, or those about to shed their shells and which are sold later as soft crabs, a delicacy to many seafood lovers.

They also moved to curb “agents” and “permit stacking,” in which watermen can let someone else catch crabs in their place – a loophole that state officials say has been exploited for years.

And the commission capped the number of watermen who can dredge crabs, almost all of them females, from the muddy bottom of the Bay as they hibernate during winter months.

Only about 55 license-holders will be able to continue this practice, though officials said they may ban winter dredging entirely when the commission meets again in April to discuss other conservation measures.

Also on tap for debate in April will be cutting the amount of crab pots and traps by between 10 and 30 percent, and perhaps as high as 50 percent; doing away with recreational crabbing licenses; and enforcing no-harvest sanctuaries for longer periods during the commercial season.

“Believe me, the commission gets no pleasure out of passing regulations that make things more difficult for watermen,” said Steve Bowman, who heads the marine commission. “But the numbers don’t lie. Things are bad. They’re really bad.”

For example, the average annual harvest in Virginia and Maryland from 1945 to 2006 was 72 million pounds. The harvest in 2007 was expected to be about 40 million pounds, the lowest on record.

Researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science have also documented a 70 percent decline in the abundance of adult crabs since 1991 – a time when the state enacted 22 regulations designed to enhance stocks.

Jack Travelstead, state director of fisheries, said Tuesday that the years of regulation may not have turned the population around, but they probably helped avoid a complete collapse of the species.

Watermen, though, said the experience proved what they have argued for years – that the biggest problem facing crabs is not overfishing, which the commission has tried to regulate. Instead, they argued, crabs are suffering from a combination of environmental degradation – pollution, lost habitat, little oxygen to breathe – along with increasing numbers of natural predators such as striped bass, croakers and blue catfish.

“Water quality is the key,” Kelly Price, an Eastern Shore crabber, told the commission. “Without that, you lose habitat. And without habitat, you’re done.”

The moves Tuesday come as Maryland is wrestling with new regulations as well. The two states have been discussing joint strategies for weeks, officials said, and will continue to coordinate efforts.

Maryland is eyeing a maximum size limit for female crabs, but only wants to proceed if Virginia agrees to do the same, Travelstead said. The maximum limit, of 6½ inches, will be discussed at the April commission meeting.

As stocks continued to struggle last year, Virginia assembled a team of scientists and government experts from various Atlantic states. The team spent a year studying Virginia’s plight and concluded, among other things, that too many pots are being used to catch too few crabs, and that environmental woes are plaguing any revival.

The actions approved Tuesday stem from that scientific review. Virginia also is studying long-term management changes that would fundamentally shift how crabbing is governed.

That study is continuing but could include a days-on-the-

water system, in which crabbers would be granted specific times when they could go fishing, and could buy, sell or trade those rights as they please. The method has helped turn around the once-troubled sea scallop fishery off the Atlantic coast.