THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, May 8, 1995 TAG: 9505080069
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: TANGIER LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
News of shortages combined with better-than-expected catches are pushing the price of Chesapeake Bay blue crabs to record market highs.
Virginia watermen are getting up to $70 a bushel for male ``jimmie'' crabs at the dock, at least $10 more than they did last year. The less desirable female crabs are fetching at least $35 a bushel, another record high.
``Catch-wise, along with price, we're having one of our better seasons,'' said Tangier Island waterman Jeff Crockett. ``My average day's catch has been 18 to 25 bushels and at $35 a bushel, I'm a happy camper.''
All scientific indicators, as well as last winter's disappointing crab-dredging season in the lower Bay, pointed to a bleak future for the 3,000 or so Virginians who make their living catching crabs on the Bay and its tributaries.
A joint Virginia-Maryland sampling survey found 15 percent fewer crabs in the estuary last winter than the year before. The take by Virginia's winter dredging fleet was just a tenth of a normal season's harvest.
But since the crab pot season opened April 1, blue crabs have been showing up in surprising, if not completely reassuring, numbers.
``There are more crabs than anticipated,'' said Roy Insley, who tracks crab harvests and directs crab management for the Virginia Marine Resources Commission in Newport News. ``It appears the (crab population) may be higher than we thought based on what's going on now.''
Insley cautions that early-season harvest success may temporarily mask problems that have been threatening the crab industry in recent years.
``We all agree we're in a down cycle that bears watching very closely.''
Virginia Institute of Marine Science instructor Jacques van Montfrans, who helped conduct trawl surveys to gauge crab abundance in the Bay, said the findings suggest 1995 will be remembered as a lean one for crab harvests.
VIMS has made trawl sweeps at 1,200 locations throughout the Bay every winter since 1981. He said the number of crabs has dropped each of the past four years.
``We're expecting to see continued low levels of abundance throughout this year and next winter's dredge fishery,'' he said.
Van Montfrans said the Bay's crabs face many problems: overfishing, natural swings in the crab's population cycle and, possibly, complicated predator-prey relationships between crabs and other animals in the Chesapeake.
KEYWORDS: BLUE CRABS CHESAPEAKE BAY by CNB