THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 14, 1995 TAG: 9512140418
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
The Chesapeake Bay blue crab is not imperiled, as many conservationists warn, and should rebound with some minor new limits, the chairman of a special crab committee said Wednesday.
State Rep. Robert S. Bloxom, an Eastern Shore Republican, made his upbeat assessment following a six-month study of the prized crab by a legislative committee he chaired.
Since last summer, the panel has traveled throughout the region collecting data and testimony from state officials, seafood merchants, watermen, scientists and environmentalists.
And in the end, Bloxom said, he believes the current population decline is ``just one of those natural down cycles'' that has marked the crab fishery for centuries.
Some scientists and conservation groups disagree. They argue that the 1995 hard crab harvest, estimated as the lowest in 36 years, coupled with projections that adult crab stocks are extremely weak, show a population on the brink of collapse.
Crabs are one of the most important seafood resources in the Bay, both economically and culturally, so the debate about their fate has been emotional and intense.
They mean thousands of jobs for Virginia and generate nearly $88 million a year for the state's economy. Crabs adorn T-shirts, coffee mugs and license plates, and have been a staple for backyard summer picnics and seafood restaurants for decades.
Bloxom tempered his optimism, however, by stressing that without immediate attention to reducing harvest pressures on fragile adult stocks, ``we could get into some real trouble.''
The committee's final report, to be delivered next month to the Virginia General Assembly, reflects a position similar to Bloxom's, according to a draft approved Wednesday.
As outlined, the report advocates few new conservation rules, and seeks to empower the Virginia Marine Resources Commission to set crab policy instead of politicians in Richmond.
The one new law the committee advocates is requiring greater protection of underwater sea grasses. Young crabs rely on grasses to hide from predators and find food.
If adopted, the law would mandate that landowners and marine contractors take greater care in preserving grasses when building docks, piers and bulkheads.
Bloxom and others expressed hope in early harvest statistics from the winter dredge fishery, which began Dec. 1. Watermen drag the Bay bottom and collect crabs - mostly pregnant adult females - from their muddy hibernation.
Roy Insley, a state crab manager, told the committee that winter catches are especially good so far this season in the middle Bay, near Tangier Island, where watermen are regularly meeting their 60-bushel-a-day quota.
However, in the lower Bay, near Hampton Roads, ``there's hardly any crabs; no one's catching anything,'' Insley said. He noted how scientists could find few adults migrating east toward of the mouth of the Bay from the James River. by CNB