THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 1, 1995 TAG: 9510010152
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C17 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BOB HUTCHINSON
LENGTH: Long : 122 lines
The leaves are still green and on most days there's still a hint of summer in the air. The calendar says summer is just slightly more than a week past. Still, one of autumn's rituals is about to begin.
While most Virginians will have to wait for the third Monday in November to hunt whitetail deer, the season opens Monday - as in tomorrow - in Chesapeake, Virginia Beach and the eastern section of Suffolk, the area popularly known as the Great Dismal Swamp.
Chesapeake and Virginia Beach, two of the state's largest cities, have impressive numbers of whitetails.
Last year, Chesapeake hunters bagged 981, while those in Virginia Beach took 837.
But either figure was just a fraction of what happened in Suffolk. Some 1,772 whitetails were dropped there. Of course, that included all of what once was Nansemond County.
This early season runs through Nov. 30. So a lot of southeastern Virginia hunters will have the advantage of two seasons, this one and then, by hunting other areas, the statewide season, which opens Nov. 20.
Why, you ask? This early season was inaugurated decades ago at the request of hunters who chase whitetails with dogs.
They successfully argued that because the swampy area was impossible to hunt in December due to ice. A legitimate argument then, but with so much of the area drained, water and ice no longer are a major problem.
At one time, this was one of several staggered openings across the state. But a few years ago the professional biologists and wildlife managers at the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries decided to go to a uniform opening.
Virtually everyone agreed. Except members of hunt clubs in the three Southeastern cities. They put up such a squawk that department officials threw up their hands and voted to keep the early season..
Now the agency allows a statewide bow-hunting season Oct. 7 through Nov. 18 and a black-powder-rifle (muzzleloading) season Nov. 6-18 in all counties where rifle-hunting is legal, except the three above cities.
And in the mountains there's another black-powder season Dec. 18 through Jan. 6 and another archery season Dec. 4 through Jan. 6, while Dismal Swamp archers can shoot deer Dec. 1 through Jan. 6.
So maybe we're almost back where we were, with all sorts of staggered openings. It doesn't seem to matter.
Deer continue to thrive. Last year's statewide kill was a record 209,373, the third consecutive year it had topped 200,000. Another 200,000 kills are expected this season.
Still, officials estimate the Virginia deer herd at 1 million, a record, and add that the Chesapeake/Virginia Beach/Suffolk deer population also is higher than ever.
REEF RULES: The four Chesapeake Bay artificial fishing reefs created with funds from the state's saltwater fishing license fund have been ruled off-limits to commercial activities.
The action was approved Tuesday by the Marine Resources Commission. Only fishing with ``handline, rod-and-reel, spear or gig, licensed for recreational use,'' will be allowed.
The locations:
Gwynn Island Reef, 1.2 miles east of the south end of Gwynn Island, near Deltaville.
Northern Neck Reef, 7.0 miles east of Great Wicomico River Light, near Reedville.
Anglers Reef, 2.8 miles west-northwest of the entrance to Onancock Creek on the Eastern Shore.
The (Degaussing) Cell Reef, 3.6 miles west of the entry to Hungars Creek on the Eastern Shore.
The sites are marked by yellow special purpose buoys bearing ``VMRC'' (Virginia Marine Resources Commission and the name of the site. Commercial activities are prohibited within a 200-yard radius of the buoys.
MENHADEN BYCATCH: The bycatch of other species by the Virginia menhaden industry is far greater than first indicated by a study conducted by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS).
The menhaden is a small, oily fish used in making livestock food and various chemicals, including oil-base paints.
Recreational fishermen long have contended that menhaden purse-seining boats, operating all over Virginia's Chesapeake Bay, catch a lot of striped bass, bluefish and other game fish. This is what's called the ``bycatch.''
A new look at data from a 1992 VIMS study indicated that 23 percent of the times these boats set their nets, the bycatch exceeded the 1 percent allowed under state law.
The most recent issue of the Virginia Marine Resource Bulletin, published by VIMS, revealed that this bycatch was 14 times greater than reported earlier.
The Gloucester Point laboratory drew praise for the reevaluation from the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) of Virginia, a federation of recreational fishermen which questioned the earlier report. But the CCA said the study needed to be broadened.
``The study is only a snapshot of three months of 1992 data and primarily points out the need for further investigations,'' the organization said in a position paper.
Earlier this year, the menhaden industry successfully turned back a proposed study of the fish's forage role in sustaining Chesapeake Bay game fish.
That study was sought by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and supported by the CCV.
SHARKING OUT: Commercial fishing for large coastal sharks has been outlawed in federal waters for the remainder of the year.
The closure was ordered for midnight Saturday by the National Marine Fisheries Service. The agency announced that the annual quota for the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea had been reached.
Sharks have been regulated for the past few years after their numbers were decimated by excessive harvest, especially by commercial fishermen in the Gulf.
SHORT CASTS: The Norfolk In-Water Power and Sail Expo winds up a three-day stand today at Waterside Marina. Hours will be 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. It's the first in-water show in Norfolk in three years. . . . The fifth annual Hatteras Village King Mackerel Tournament will be held Oct. 26-28, with headquarters at Teach's Lair Marina. Details: 1-919-986-2995 or 1-919-986-2460. . . . Chris Daves of Spring Grove finished 15th and won $2,200 to lead the Virginia contingent in the recent $196,000 Bassmaster New York Invitational bass fishing tournament out of Clayton, N.Y. Kevin VanDam of Michigan took the $35,000 top prize. Phil Parker of Suffolk finished out of the money at No. 100, Rick Morris of Virginia Beach was No. 143, Ron Stallings of Franklin No. 196, Ivan Morris of Virginia Beach No. 198 and Jim Sumrell of Virginia Beach No. 276 in the 350-angler field. . . . The International Game Fish Association, keeper of world game fish records, has ruled that the use of spray-on scents on artificial lures is illegal in fly fishing. You can't set a record if you use them. by CNB