MARINE OFFICIALS FIND ILLEGAL-FISHING EVIDENCE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 7, 1993                   TAG: 9302070112
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: COLONIAL BEACH                                LENGTH: Short
MARINE OFFICIALS FIND ILLEGAL-FISHING EVIDENCE
Evidence of illegal oyster fishing in the Potomac River may be a sign of increasing desperation among Chesapeake watermen, marine officials said.
No arrests have been made, but Virginia and Maryland authorities have found two dredges secreted in the river this season.
The dredges apparently symbolize the hard times oystermen face. The shellfish is faring better in the river than in the nearby Chesapeake Bay, where it has been in serious decline for a decade.
As the shellfish gets harder and harder to find, some watermen are willing to risk arrest by using dredges, which were banned as ecologically damaging 70 years ago.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB