ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, August 14, 1996 TAG: 9608140055
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Virginia's 1995 commercial fishing harvest - more than 83 million pounds of fish and shellfish - is well below the 102 million pounds caught in 1993, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission says.
The harvest last year, only slightly larger than the 1994 harvest, had a dockside value of $76 million, according to preliminary numbers collected by the commission.
The decline from 1993 was the result of smaller landings for several species, including blue crabs, menhaden and hard clams, said David Bower, head of data management for the commission's plans and statistics section.
``You get a few species like that, and it adds up,'' he said.
Virginia's Hampton Roads region ranked 50th nationwide in commercial fishing landings in 1995, according to a new report by the National Marine Fisheries Service. Based on the value of the landings, Hampton Roads ranked 21st nationwide, with $26.6 million, the fisheries service said.
The service defines Hampton Roads as Newport News, Hampton, Norfolk and Virginia Beach, leaving out smaller area ports such as Cape Charles on the Eastern Shore.
The region ranks higher in value because it lands more valuable species, including sea scallops and hard clams, which average about $5 a pound.
More than half of Virginia's seafood harvest is shellfish, which had an average dockside value of $1.38 a pound in 1995, compared with the 39 cents-a-pound average for fin fish, according to state figures.
The state numbers are the first reliable accounting of commercial fishing landings in Virginia. Since January 1993, licensed watermen have been required to report everything they pull from Virginia waters, and officials say compliance is improving.
The state report does not include aquaculture or the production of shellfish on leased grounds, Bower said.
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