THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 23, 1996 TAG: 9602230483
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
Facing mounting opposition, and an agitated crowd of burly fishermen, a state senator Thursday night withdrew his bill that would have better protected the Chesapeake Bay blue crab.
Sen. Warren E. Barry, a Fairfax Republican, had wanted the General Assembly to pass protections of the Bay's most treasured species that were tougher than those adopted last month by the Virginia Marine Resources Commission.
His bill to impose stricter trap limits, freeze commercial crabbing licenses and virtually ban the harvest of pregnant female crabs easily passed the Senate two weeks ago.
But since then, watermen joined hands with seafood buyers and commission members to form a powerful lobbying team. And on Thursday, they told the House Chesapeake Bay and Its Tributaries Committee that the measure would strangle a struggling Virginia seafood industry, which relies heavily on crabs, and could not be supported by scientific data.
Virginia and Maryland have been wrestling for more than a year with conflicting studies and anecdotes that the Bay's once-prodigious crab population may be in trouble.
Maryland reacted by imposing emergency regulations late last year, and is considering more this year. Virginia delayed action until a comprehensive federal study was completed this winter, then approved lesser limits in January after the study determined that crabs are not in danger.
In introducing his bill this legislative sesion, Barry argued that the Virginia Marine Resources Commission passed a watered-down package of protections that would not reverse a population slide. He echoed that criticism Thursday, but found few backers. Indeed, no one spoke on behalf of his bill at the hearing.
``Mine is an honest effort to help what I think is a problem,'' Barry said, noting that he fears crabs may fade into oblivion like other Bay seafood sources, including oysters, shad and sturgeon.
But watermen and state experts testified that Virginia has passed more than a dozen crabbing regulations in the past four years, that the number of watermen harvesting crabs has dropped 39 percent since 1992 and that new protections approved last month should arrest what they called a natural down-cycle of crabs.
Barry made a last-minute request to delay action on his bill until next week, after the commission fine-tunes its new protections. The commission meets Tuesday to define where it will impose trap limits in the Bay and other details.
The committee was about to grant Barry's request when watermen in the hearing room began to grumble.
Sensing defeat and rising frustration, Barry then stood up and told committee chairman Del. Jerrauld C. Jones, D-Norfolk, that he wanted to strike his bill. Watermen gave him a standing ovation.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, an environmental group which has lobbied for stronger crab restrictions, did not take a position on Barry's bill.
Several committee members said they opposed the bill because they believe the commission, which is staffed by scientists and fisheries managers, should decide fishing policy and not politicians in Richmond. by CNB