THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 4, 1994 TAG: 9408040568
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JAMES SCHULTZ, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
Virginia's blue crab has for years seemed invincible in the face of any possible threat. Until now.
The crab catch is looking slim this summer for the second time in three years. Retail prices for crab bushels are up 20 percent to 40 percent in many fish stores, a sign that supplies are falling short of demand.
Scientists, watermen and regulatory officials all are worried.
``I think there's something wrong. Every crabber you talk to says something is wrong,'' said Tommy Leggett, a commercial fisherman and past president of the Working Waterman's Association. ``Crabs go through a cycle, natural ups and downs. But when you add on top of that the fishing pressures - frankly, I'm scared.''
Watermen have turned to crabbing as other Chesapeake Bay mainstays - oysters, shad, rockfish, herring and perch - have declined precipitously due to pollution, disease and overfishing. Some 2,400 commercial fishermen have a crabbing license, up 41 percent since 1980.
``There's no other fishery to go to if this one collapses,'' said Jack Travelstead, chief of fisheries management for the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. ``So many people make a living in it, that (a collapse) would be disastrous.''
A decade ago, Travelstead said, crabbers placed an average of 200 pots, or wire-mesh traps. Now, 350 to 400 pots are considered normal, and some crabbers place 500 to 600 pots to trap enough crabs to make their day profitable.
``It's down, it's real slack,'' said David Barnes, a crabber who helps supply Hughson's Crab Company in Norfolk.
``Normally we would go out and see three dozen crabs a pot. Now you might see one with three dozen, a few with half a dozen.
``Everybody I know that's into this is hurting right now,'' he said. ``If it doesn't get better I'll have to do something else.''
Crab harvests fell to a 30-year low in 1992 when, under the state's then-voluntary reporting system, crabbers reported taking in about 23 million pounds. Last year's harvest appeared to dramatically rebound, to more than 51 million pounds.
The 1993 increase is misleading, Travelstead cautions, because last year crabbers were required for the first time to report their total harvest.
Previous voluntary reports probably underestimated the yearly catch.
There are other warning signs.
``In the last five or six years, there has been a noticeable lack of large crabs early in the season,'' said Bill Goldsborough, a fisheries scientist for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. ``It's gotten to the point that people think that's normal. It's not.''
Goldsborough puts the blame on overfishing and on a crabbing season that begins early, ends late and allows crabbers to dredge in the winter.
The Virginia Marine Resources Commission will convene next month to consider steps to reverse the crab decline, including limits on crab pots, establishment of river and Bay crab sanctuaries, restrictions on winter dredges, and minimum-size requirements for soft-shell crabs.
Last year the state set mild restrictions on crabbing, but some watermen say it was too little, too late.
``You can't just rape the fishery and take, take, take,'' commercial fisherman Leggett said.
``A lot of this stuff should have been done 10, 15 years ago, when there was still some stuff left to fish.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Crabs
Staff graphic
Virginia's Blue Crab harvest
(Voluntary reporting only)
Source: National Maritime Fisheries Service, Virginia Marine
Resources Commission
For copy of graphic, see microfilm
KEYWORDS: CRABS SEAFOOD INDUSTRY
VIRGINIA MARINE RESOURCES COMMISSION
by CNB