THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 18, 1996 TAG: 9604180360
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 128 lines
On a breezy dock on Willoughby Bay, Wes Brock asked a Virginia Marine Patrol officer a question burning in the minds of many watermen and environmentalists as the 1996 crab harvest gets under way.
``Hey,'' Brock shot with a grin, ``tell me how you guys are gonna enforce this new stuff. I mean, really.''
By ``new stuff,'' Brock meant a web of new state regulations passed this year to better protect a slumping population of Chesapeake Bay blue crabs, which for decades have been the backbone of Virginia's seafood industry.
Officer Mike Stallings stared at the weathered dock. ``It's going to be difficult,'' he finally said. ``I'm not sure how we're going to do it.''
For the second straight year, crab season began April 1 in Virginia under new and tighter government rules, including first-time limits for capturing pregnant female crabs and a cap on the number of traps each licensed waterman can set in the lower Bay and its tributaries.
Meanwhile, in the upper Bay, Maryland officials are preparing a new round of crab regulations.
Maryland wants to cut short its crabbing season by one month, from Dec. 31 to Nov. 30, and force its watermen to take one day off a week, as Virginia law mandates.
Pete Jensen, director of fisheries for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, said these and other restrictions are expected to go into effect by mid-June, when crabbing gets going in the colder northern reaches of the Bay.
Cold weather has slowed the spring catch in Virginia, as Brock and other watermen working in Hampton Roads attested last week. On Thursday, for example, a windburned Brock chuckled at his meager catch of two dozen crabs after a long chilly morning on Willoughby Bay.
The early crab shortage has pushed the market price for a bushel of hard crabs to near-records. Several seafood retailers in Norfolk and Virginia Beach reported last week that a bushel would cost about $70. And in Maryland, the average price reached $150 per bushel.
``That's the highest I've ever seen,'' said Jensen, headquartered in Annapolis. ``But there's just no crabs out there yet.''
While prices certainly will return to earth as the season progresses into May and June, the real uncertainty is the impact of new state regulations, both economically and environmentally.
Several watermen interviewed last week think the new rules could actually hurt conservation efforts, while others believe Virginia acted this year solely for political expediency.
``You had a bunch of environmentalists crying and squawking, so they (state officials) had to do something,'' said Francis Parks, a scruffy crabber from Smith Island in Maryland who comes to Hampton Roads each spring for the early crab season. ``It's all politics, that's all these rules are.''
Asked if he thought there are fewer crabs in the Bay, as many environmentalists and scientists believe, Parks said: ``Yeah, probably.''
``But let me tell you,'' the 50-year veteran waterman added, ``it's no worse than what we saw in the 1960s. And they didn't start passing all kinds of regulations on us back then. Somehow, we managed just fine.''
Backed by scientists and fishery managers, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission passed new regulations to try to ``cap effort,'' or control the amount of harvesting so blue crabs can reproduce to a sufficient population.
``It's an attempt to get a handle on a situation before it gets out of hand,'' said Bill Goldsborough, a fisheries expert with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, a leading environmental group.
Virginia employs 16 marine patrol officers in the Tidewater region. They are responsible for enforcing a dizzying array of state fishing and conservation rules from the York River south to the North Carolina line.
Officer Stallings just received his copy of the new crab regulations in the mail the other day, and he concedes that watermen probably know the details better than he or his partner, Officer Paul Newman.
``These regulations change so much, it's hard for us to keep up with them,'' Newman said.
Neither officer was sure how they would enforce the two cornerstones of the regulation package: the crab trap limit (a 500-pot maximum per waterman in the Bay, 300 in the tributaries), and the ban on harvesting pregnant females that have dark-colored eggs exposed on their abdomens.
``We really haven't had much instruction on those yet,'' Newman said. ``But as the season gets going, I'm sure we'll come up with a strategy.''
Another rule, which sought to cap the number of commercial crabbing licenses allowed this year, has caused anger and confusion.
About 20 or 30 watermen bought licenses before Virginia passed its final regulations. After some protest, state officials were forced to revoke the licenses and refund money.
At the same time, officials adopted three special conditions under which new crab licenses could be obtained. So far, 214 more licenses than last year's total have been sold, said Wilford Kale, a spokesman for the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. And that number will increase as the season progresses, Kale said.
Several watermen smiled when asked about the new crab-pot limit, saying they think enforcement will be next to impossible.
``What are they gonna do? Spend the day hauling up one guy's pots and counting them one by one?'' said Brock. ``There's no way.''
He recalled watching one crabber pull up more than 500 traps from Willoughby Bay last week, which is against the law. Since Willoughby Bay is a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay, a waterman is supposed to use only 300 traps.
The pregnant female restriction is another unclear regulation. What does ``dark-colored eggs'' actually mean? Orange? Brown? And what about the unusual trait of crab eggs turning darker when they leave the water? Will that constitute a color violation if a female with light-colored eggs shows up at the market with dark eggs?
Mark Johnson, an Isle of Wight County waterman busy last week on the Elizabeth River, said the female crab restrictions will only serve to force crabbers to go after male crabs that live in shallow tributaries.
To him, the regulation will spare females, but damage the male population.
``All the big boats will just head up the tributaries after the Jimmies,'' or males, Johnson said. ``Then we'll have our creeks and rivers overflowing with crab pots and we'll soon be talking about a lack of Jimmies out there.''
So what does Johnson think Virginia should do?
``They've put enough rules on us already,'' Johnson said, noting a seven-point plan instituted in October 1994 as well. ``Why don't we just wait and see how all these rules actually work?'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]
MOTOYA NAKAMURA photos
The Virginian-Pilot
Mark Jenkins pursues blue crabs on the Elizabeth River and shows one
he landed, below. Crab season began April 1 under tighter rules,
including limits on capturing pregnant females and a cap on the
number of traps watermen can set in the lower Bay and its
tributaries.
KEYWORDS: SEAFOOD INDUSTRY ENVIRONMENT WATERMAN CRABBING < by CNB