THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 29, 1995 TAG: 9511290402
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
Virginia took the first step Tuesday toward greater protection of its troubled Chesapeake Bay blue crab, including a measure estimated to spare a million crabs a week from harvesting.
By a unanimous vote, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission endorsed a four-point plan favored by scientists, environmentalists and state experts. It includes a freeze on the number of commercial crabbing licenses next year and a ban on catching pregnant female crabs that are on the verge of giving birth.
Overall, the plan is designed to restore a slumping population of adult crabs in Virginia's half of the Bay, which surveys show at near-historic lows.
It comes on the heels of intense public pressure by conservationists to follow the lead of Maryland, which during the summer approved stronger measures to protect the Bay's crab population.
But the plan was quickly criticized as too restrictive by seafood buyers and watermen, who maintain that crab stocks have fluctuated for centuries and, given time, will rebound naturally under existing regulations.
``What's important to remember is its amazing reproductive ability,'' said Jeff Crockett, a commercial crabber and president of the Tangier Island Watermen's Association. ``And they always seem to come back when they're at their lowest cycle.''
As symbols of the Bay, appearing on everything from T-shirts to license plates, blue crabs account for thousands of jobs in Virginia and contribute nearly $88 million a year to the state's economy.
If not reversed, their population slide could lead to ``a major decline in the fishery, or worse yet, a collapse if environmental conditions coincidentally deteriorate,'' warned the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in a report, also released Tuesday.
Watermen and merchants favor their own strategy, revealed Tuesday, which features new but milder catch rules and a proposed female crab sanctuary at the mouth of the Rappahannock River. Virginia approved two other sanctuaries last year, in Hampton Roads and on the Eastern Shore.
But their plan does little to address a sharp rise in the number of hard-crab traps set in the lower Bay. State officials hope to arrest this trend with a 300-trap limit per licensed waterman. Virginia now has no numerical ceiling on hard-crab pots.
Both plans will be released for public comment over the next six weeks, and two public hearings will be scheduled, probably next month. The commission then will vote on a final protection plan at its Jan. 23 meeting - in time for the 1996 commercial crabbing season.
Jack Travelstead, Virginia director of fisheries, said about 8 percent of the state's 3,000 commercial watermen use more than 300 traps to harvest crabs. He estimated that a 300-trap limit, if approved, would pose little economic hardship while eliminating more than 30,000 traps from the water.
He further calculated that as many as 145,000 crabs a day, or more that 1 million crabs a week, could be spared under the 300-trap limit.
As part of the limit, Travelstead said, watermen also would be required to attach colored tags on their traps so marine patrol officers could enforce the rule. Each tag would cost about 40 cents. Failure to attach them could result in a Class 3 misdemeanor.
The license freeze is intended to stop more crabbers from entering the industry. As drafted, watermen holding crab licenses in 1995 could obtain a similar license next year - but only for the same amount of traps they used this year.
Currently, 623 people are licensed for up to 100 traps. An additional 882 carry licenses for more than 100 traps, Travelstead said.
Virginia watermen have been criticized for years for catching pregnant females, known as sponge crabs, as they swim south to spawn at the mouth of the Bay.
Under the plan, it would become illegal to take sponge crabs carrying dark-brown or black eggs on their bodies - a sign they are days away from giving birth. Afterward, however, they would become fair game.
Lastly, the state proposes to establish a 3 1/2-inch minimum size for catching soft crabs, a move the seafood industry also recommends under its strategy. It is the only common denominator between the two plans.
Becky Norton Dunlop, Virginia's secretary of natural resources, hinted that she favors the state plan in a letter read aloud Tuesday by the head of the Virginia Marine Resource Commission, William Pruitt.
While discouraging critics of Virginia's crab policy by stating that she is ``very proud of our record,'' Dunlop wrote that she was especially interested in the ``'possible protection of sponge crabs'' and of limiting the number of crabbers in the industry.
Bill Goldsborough, fish biologist and staff scientist at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, an environmental group that has led the charge for new crab protections, said he was generally pleased by the state's plan. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
Here's how the Virginia Marine Resources Commission's plan to
protect the Chesapeake Bay blue crab would alter current Virginia
crabbing rules.
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
by CNB