THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 22, 1994 TAG: 9408180010
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 36 lines
For some time, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation has been pushing for reasonable limits on crab harvests in order to ensure that crabs do not go the way of oysters, shad, sturgeon and a number of other species which have been decimated by overharvesting, pollution and loss of habitat.
What was especially interesting in your report ``Declining crab catch in Bay causing alarm'' (news, Aug. 4) was the clear connection between the abundance of crabs and jobs. Some 2,400 commercial crabbers are working in Virginia waters alone. If we lose the crabs, we lose jobs. Once again, there is a clear link between the environment and the economy.
Other Bay fisheries could have been saved if action had been taken earlier. As a commercial fisherman and past president of the Working Watermen's Association, Tommy Leggett said to your reporter: ``You can't just rape the fishery and take, take, take. A lot of this stuff (reasonable restrictions on harvesting) should have been done 10, 15 years ago, when there was still some stuff left to fish.''
The plight of the crabber is another reminder that there are social, cultural and economic repercussions as well as biological ones if we do not conserve the Bay's resources.
MICHAEL D. KENSLER, manager
Hampton Roads
Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Norfolk, Aug. 10, 1994 by CNB