On Tuesday, April 23, VMRC will impose more regulations on the crabbers.

The crabbers have been accused of overfishing for years but they have started fighting back. Too late but they are fighting.

For over 30 years commercial waterman have been screaming about the degradation of the Chesapeake Bay that has been causing the decline of life in the Bay.

Although the crabbers will take another hit they have united and several environmental organizations have joined with them as they have threated suit.

Lawyers have advised them that they do have grounds for such a suit. This week the Virgina Waterman's Association will meet with an environmental group that has passed word to them that they have already prepared the legal work for such a suit. They have just been waiting for the right group to come along. They think the Virginia Waterman's Association is that group. 

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 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.

The stock of crabs is low in the Chesapeake Bay. This is not the first time it has been low. It has been going on for years.

Restrictions are continually being placed on the crabber. But putting more restrictions on the crabber is not going to solve the problem, it is only going to slow the decline until the resource is eliminated. 

"The Virginia Marine Resource Commission Management Plan for Blue Crab" states that:

Ongoing losses in submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) that serves as primary nursery areas for juvenile crabs and reduction of oyster reefs that provide food and refuge for age 1+ crabs evidently impede the growth of this stock.  VIMS indicates there is evidence of high mortality rates of juvenile crabs tied to the loss of SAV, and this loss has a direct impact on recruitment to age 1+ .  The extent of predation on blue crabs by predators such as striped bass, red drum, and Atlantic croaker is unknown.

The report goes on to further say, "Despite evidence that the blue crab stock faces many environmental challenges, the management plan must continue to promote measures that can lead to annual exploitation rates that are near the target level exploitation rate (u = 0.46)."

Great Management!

Don't fix the problem.

It takes more than a bumper sticker that says, "Save the Bay" 

As most of you know I use to be a commercial fisherman. Sometimes I take a break from Northern Neck real estate and work a few days on the water.

Some people find that crazy as working on the water is hard phsyical work but I find it to be relaxing.

In October the the associated press was watching use work. The VMRC patronmen carried then to certain boats where the crew asked questions.

In November their article started showing up papers across the country.

I was quoted in the article.

Here is that article taken from the Free Lance Star.

Part of Rappahannock open for oyster season

Date published: 11/22/2007 BY SONJA BARISICASSOCIATED PRESS WRITERON THE RAPPAHANNOCK RIVER–After five hours of seeking oysters in a section of a Chesapeake Bay tributary that has been off-limits until recently, Gerald Condrey was ready to call it a day.The commercial fisherman hadn't caught much, and his take was about to be reduced further.When a Virginia Marine Police boat happened by, he agreed to sell a couple bushels of the largest shellfish to the state–not for eating, not for cooking in traditional Thanksgiving stuffing, but for dumping back into the Rappahannock River."We're going to watch y'all drop them over on the reef," Marine Police Capt. Steve Pope called out as Condrey steered his workboat toward a marked sanctuary area in the river. There, Cordrey raised a tub and poured its gritty contents overboard.BAY'S OYSTER BOUNTY HAS DECLINED STEADILYThat simple action is part of a plan attempting to breed future generations of oysters that can stand up to the diseases that since the 1950s have devastated the bay's once-bountiful oyster population.It is being tried in tandem with a new scheme to rotate harvesting to different parts of the river each year so no one area is overworked. That has opened part of the lower Rappahannock to oystering this fall for the first time in more than 15 years.Condrey and other watermen, as commercial fishermen are known locally, are skeptical.They say the area should have been opened long ago and they blame years of management plans and regulations for the small amount of oysters they're encountering in the newly opened area–so meager they predict the oysters will run out before the season ends Nov. 30.They want to be allowed to harvest the entire river. "They need to open up where the oysters are," said Condrey.WATERMEN SAY THEY KNOW RIVER BESTWatermen argue that, like farm crops that grow better when fields are tilled and weeded, oysters will grow bigger and faster if they are harvested regularly from the river bottom."You should see the oysters that have died" because the state hasn't permitted them to be harvested, said oysterman Ken Smith of Heathsville, disgust in his voice. "You've heard of supply and demand? Let the watermen decide. They're not going to come out here and work if they're not going to make money."Jim Wesson, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission oyster scientist who designed the rotational harvest and buyback program, said the state is trying to make the most efficient use of what oysters are out there and that time is needed to see if this will work.Wesson also said he never expected watermen to find a windfall in the newly opened area, estimating a total yield of 3,000 bushels of oysters that are market-sized–at least 3 inches."That's the way oysters are right now," Wesson said. "There are no oysters in Virginia to speak of."OYSTERS A BIG PART OF VIRGINIA HISTORYAs food and as filters of pollutants in the water, oysters have been important to the ecology, economy and culture of the Chesapeake Bay for centuries.When Jamestown founder John Smith explored the bay in the early 1600s, he described in his journal oysters so abundant that they "lay thick as stones."Following the Civil War, thousands of unemployed men sought to make a living harvesting oysters on the bay. Both Virginia and Maryland established oyster navies to enforce boundaries and prevent poaching; there were border disputes between Maryland and Virginia watermen and even "oyster wars" between the state of Virginia and oyster dredgers.WATERMEN SAY OYSTERS REGULATED TOO MUCHAs recently as 1957, Virginia was producing 30 percent of the nation's oyster supply.Timmy Belvin of Gloucester has been a waterman since he was 12. He's now 49."Twenty years ago, you could come out here, you wouldn't come under 75 bushels a day," Belvin said. Now, he's barely catching his limit of eight bushels per day of market-sized oysters."There's too much regulations," Belvin said.With disease, as well as overharvesting and pollution, the native oyster population in the bay today is about 1 percent of its historic level, according to a recent report by a blue-ribbon panel of watermen, scientists, seafood merchants and VMRC members who spent about a year studying what Virginia had been doing to restore oysters. (Other states bordering the bay have made their own efforts to save the Chesapeake's oysters.)OYSTER HARVEST RULES ARE STRICT, SPECIFICFollowing a recommendation by the Virginia panel, VMRC approved reopening parts of the Rappahannock to harvest from Oct. 1 through Nov. 30. Under a three-year rotation, two areas of the river will be open every year.Watermen may use hand scrapes–old-fashioned rakes for scooping up the bivalves from the river bottom–from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. weekdays.They must cull oysters larger than 4 inches, either throwing them back into the water or selling up to three bushels of the larger oysters back to the state per day.The state pays $25 per bushel, or about $5 less per bushel than some watermen recently said they were getting paid for oysters they're selling to seafood houses. Wesson said the state likely will buy back no more than 1,000 bushels.Oysters the state buys are immediately placed on a reef in a sanctuary within the harvest area. Monitoring has shown that oysters in the closed areas were very large, meaning they are reaching 7 or 8 years of age, about twice the age when oysters in the bay typically die of disease. Scientists want to know if the large oysters may have developed resistance to disease that could be passed on to create sturdier subsequent generations.Improving enforcement is another goal of the blue-ribbon panel. In the past, it found, fines weren't enough to deter those intent on violating harvest rules.So, VMRC has established a zero-tolerance policy for oyster violations in state waters. A waterman must have a state license to work commercially, plus a special permit to harvest in the Rappahannock. A significant oyster violation now results in immediate confiscation of the permit; a waterman also faces a one-year suspension of his license for a first oyster offense and additional years for subsequent offenses.MARINE POLICE OFFICERS WILL PATROL THE RIVER Virginia has 77 Marine Police officers who patrol more than 5,100 miles of shoreline on the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean. They conduct inspections, investigate accidents and conduct search and rescue missions. They bust illegal oyster-shucking and crab-picking operations, and even moonshiners.Pope, who leads the Marine Police station in Gloucester, said, "This is a great opportunity for the watermen to come out here and ply their trade and keep the tradition going."Watermen say they understand that the police are just doing their jobs but that does not mean they accept the regulations."I'd like to see the whole thing opened up so everyone can go to work and make a living and provide for their families," said Mike Croxton Jr., a 47-year-old oysterman from Kilmarnock who works the river with his son, Mike III, in his Chesapeake deadrise, the Tammy C."If you got a farm, you don't fence off one little section and put all your cows on it. They eat that grass all up."