THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 5, 1995 TAG: 9511030010
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
A state-government-imposed moratorium on crabbing in Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries would be one way to stop the overharvesting that is hastening the decline of the blue-crab population in Bay waters.
Watermen would howl, understandably: Further restrictions far short of a moratorium likely would foster greater blue-crab abundance. James Kirkley, an agriculture and resource economist who has studied the dwindling fishery for the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, rightly describes the moratorium option as ``extreme.''
Not to worry. No moratorium is in prospect.
But watermen in Maryland and Virginia find fewer and fewer pounds of crabs in their pots. That's not a financial disaster necessarily: Crab prices are high because of high demand pushing against scarcity. But if Virginia watermen continue harvesting ``sponge'' crabs (females bursting with millions of eggs), Mother Nature could settle crabbing's fate in Chesapeake Bay by imposing a moratorium harsher and more enforceable than any government's.
A reasonable alternative to any regulatory moratorium would be yet-tighter limits on injudicious crabbing. Additional official restrictions would improve the odds of boosting the blue-crab stock. Tightened restrictions would be better than a crab drought that would push still more watermen into other occupations or onto the dole. Of course, if commercial crabbing in the Bay vanished because crabs became rare (which is not now the case), the blue-crab population could proliferate undisturbed.
To save the fishery, Maryland and Virginia ought to coordinate crabbing regulation, which they do not now do. Working together, the states could minimize destructive practices. Each state has appointed a legislative panel to explore conservation steps separately, but a two-state group meeting regularly seems called for. Much is at stake: With the devastation of Bay oystering in the Bay, blue crabs are Virginia's most valuable fishery.
Meanwhile, suggested conservation measures being considered by the Virginia Blue Crab Advisory Subcommittee a lowered daily dredge limit, from 20 barrels to 15; a 300-peeler-pot limit per licensee and a lengthened (perhaps year-round closure) of the Lower Bay and Kiptopeke Blue Crab Management Areas. At least one Virginia lawmakers would like to shorten the winter dredge season.
Fluctuations in the blue-crab population are normal. Alarming blue-crab shortages have been recorded in every decade at least as far back as the 1920s. The hardshell-crab harvest this year is projected to be a disappointing 25 million pounds, far below the 51.1 million pounds landed in 1993.
Although history says that 1995's disappointing harvest doesn't necessarily portend a blue-crab drought, the documented decadelong decline in pounds of crabs per pot in Bay waters and the shrinking crab, including female-crab, abundance in the 1990s are troubling to all who care about the fortunes of the fishery.
The Annapolis-based Chesapeake Bay Foundation recommends declaring all waters 40 feet deep - 25 percent of the Bay - off limits to crabbers. Neither Virginia nor Maryland is disposed to swallow so bitter a pill. Critics say the plan would be unenforceable, especially by the downsized Virginia marine patrol. But it could be the remedy of choice if more palatable prescriptions don't revive the sorely ailing patient. by CNB