THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 28, 1994 TAG: 9409280474
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JAMES SCHULTZ, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Long : 106 lines
Public oyster beds in the Chesapeake Bay and all but one of its tributaries were officially closed for the first time in state history Tuesday afternoon by a vote of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission.
The unprecedented action underscores the plight of the beleaguered oyster, whose numbers have plummeted to a fraction of the millions once found in Virginia waters.
Most watermen have already abandoned the industry.
During the 1993-94 season, Bay-area oyster catches from public beds plunged to a mere 311 bushels. By comparison, in 1904, 8 million bushels were harvested from the Bay and its tributaries.
The public beds are expected to remain closed for a year.
Exempt from the closure are all private oyster beds and a five-mile stretch of the James River, from Deep Creek to the anchorage of the mothballed Steel Fleet above Fort Eustis, an area that encompasses about 2,000 public-bed acres. The 1994-95 James River season will run from Oct. 1 through April 30, an increase of 4 1/2 months over last season's, and quota limits have been scrapped.
Only oysters at least 3 inches long may be harvested.
Seaside, on the Eastern Shore, the same cull limits apply. There, oysters in public beds may be harvested from Oct. 1 through Dec. 31, and a permit will be required to harvest from leased and fee-simple oyster grounds from Jan. 1 through Sept. 30, 1995.
Commissioners also discussed, but postponed for a month, action on restricting blue crab harvests. The hardy crustacean, once thought invulnerable to over-fishing and pollution, also appears to be in steep decline.
Commissioners will hold a special public hearing Oct. 24 to consider crab-fishing curbs recommended by resources commission scientists and colleagues from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.
Aside from the commission's unprecedented oyster actions, the Tuesday hearing was noteworthy for the lack of bitterness and confrontation that characterized past assemblies. Watermen listened attentively to scientists' presentations and commissioners' deliberations. When watermen spoke, it was politely and without rancor.
``Last year none of the issues were addressed until two or three days before the season,'' said Oscar Setterholm, president of the Western Shore branch of the Working Waterman's Association. Setterholm was also representing the Virginia Waterman's Association and the Middle Peninsula Waterman's Association.
``We've got along good this year. It was a good meeting. We come out with what we wanted.''
The lack of conflict is perhaps the strongest proof of an emerging consensus on fisheries management. Fishermen, scientists, environmentalists and state officials appear to be forging a new, if uneasy, alliance to combat common ecological ills.
``People have had time to think about it,'' said James A. Wesson, the commission's chief of oyster conservation and replenishment. ``The resource is so low that people are willing not to fight these changes.''
Commissioners will face a daunting challenge, however, as they deliberate further restrictions on the crab harvest in late October. As the oyster industry has atrophied, commercial fishers have turned to crabbing as a money-making replacement. Any crab-harvest limits will likely cause howls of protest from those watermen barely hanging on to an endangered livelihood.
A taste of the conflict to come was foreshadowed in a testy exchange between two commissioners Tuesday. The commission was debating granting to a dozen fishermen exemptions to license restrictions on catching striped bass, commonly known as rockfish.
Commissioner Peter Rowe's patience wore thin after listening to impassioned appeals from watermen seeking rockfish licenses. ``We must limit the number of fish and the amount of gear in the water because there's a limited resource,'' Rowe insisted. ``Look in the mirror, face the facts and deal with it. We're here to manage the resource and not give way to our humanity.''
Humanity is exactly the point, fumed Commissioner Timothy Hayes. Without it, he said, the commission need only plug scientific findings into a computer and sit by while the device spits out policy decisions.
``(You want to) put a damn computer up here and make a decision!'' Hayes chided. ``We make decisions for real people. By God, if we can't do that, I'll take the $50 a day (commissioner honorarium) and go buy a computer!''
The watermen in the audience responded by laughing, cheering and applauding. One cried out, ``Amen, brother!''
The Marine Resources Commission is expecting several hundred to attend its Oct. 24 public hearing. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at an undetermined location in Newport News. ILLUSTRATION: MOTOYA NAKAMURA/Staff
John M. Demaria Jr., center, of Demaria Seafood listens to members
of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission discussing the closure
of oyster beds, at Tuesday's hearing.
CLOSURE EXEMPTIONS
All private oyster beds and a five-mile stretch of the James
River, from Deep Creek to the anchorage of the mothballed Steel
Fleet above Fort Eustis. The 1994-95 James River season will run
from Oct. 1 through April 30. Quota limits have been scrapped. To be
harvested, oysters must be at least 3 inches long.
Seaside, on the Eastern Shore, the same cull limits apply. There,
oysters in public beds may be harvested from Oct. 1 through Dec. 31,
and a permit will be required to harvest from leased and fee-simple
oyster grounds from Jan. 1 through Sept. 30, 1995.
KEYWORDS: OYSTERS by CNB