THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 9, 1996 TAG: 9605090439
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
The ice, snow and winter's bitter cold may have killed as much as one-half of the crab population of Chesapeake Bay, according to surveys conducted in the Bay waters of Virginia and Maryland.
Nearly half the crabs found in the Maryland survey had died from the cold, according to results compiled by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
A less extensive Virginia survey determined that about 10 percent of the crabs sampled at various sites in the lower Bay had died from what watermen call ``winter kill,'' said Marcel Montane, who conducted the research for the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, a branch of the College of William and Mary.
Crabs die from exposure to icy conditions every winter, but results from this year's chill show a much higher mortality rate in Maryland and a slightly higher one in Virginia, officials said.
The Virginia survey was conducted between November 1995 and March of this year, Montane said. In January, researchers found about 2 percent of the crabs collected had died from the cold, about 7.5 percent in February and 15 percent in March, he said.
The surveys in both Bay states offer more disheartening news for watermen, whose crab harvests have been decreasing in recent years. It also means seafood lovers will pay more to satisfy their tastes for crab.
``There just ain't anything out there,'' said Cornelius Little Jr., who set his crab pots in the Potomac River and in its Virginia tributaries near his home in Colonial Beach, Va., last week.
When he checked his catch, he found that his 350 crab pots had yielded only a 1 1/2 bushels of crabs. The haul grossed about $120 for him, but the rising cost of fuel and bait took a bite out of that, he said. ``Crabbing's getting expensive.''
Fishery authorities have imposed harvest limits in an effort to bolster the Chesapeake Bay crab population.
The good news from the Virginia survey is that dredges researchers used to sample the Bay bottom brought up more juvenile crabs than in recent years - perhaps a positive sign for the 1997 crab season, or when those crabs will reach the minimum 5-inch market size.
Montane said the number of baby crabs found in the dredges was about twice as much as last year.
Roy Insley, who oversees crab management for the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, said he did not expect significant volumes of crabs to be caught this year until June or July.
Many watermen reported finding dead crabs during the winter, Insley said.
VMRC imposed new catch restrictions on crabbers last winter as evidence mounted of a light commercial harvest and weak scientific population estimates. MEMO: The Associated Press and staff writer Scott Harper contributed to this
story. by CNB