THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, June 25, 1996 TAG: 9606250244
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 119 lines
Commercial crabbing crawled to a slow start across the cold waters of bays, sounds and rivers of mid-Atlantic states this spring.
But for the past three weeks, North Carolina watermen have been benefiting from a late-season run of soft shell crabs - and from severely depleted hard shell crab stocks in Virginia and Maryland.
Crabbers around the Outer Banks have been catching about the same number of crustaceans as they did last year. Prices for the peelers, soft shells and hard crabs, however, are much higher than usual. And the restaurant and retail demand for summer's pick-it-yourself supper appears to be cracking previous records.
``More people are eating crabs than ever. And there's no shortage of 'em around here,'' said Colington Island seafood dealer Murray Bridges, who sold more than a million pounds of hard crabs last year. ``Sure, there are more people out on the water catching 'em. But the soft shell season, at least, is lasting longer this year. I'm getting as many crabs, overall, as I did 25 years ago - with the same number of pots.
``And right now, the price is better than ever. Most of mine are going to New York, New Jersey and Maryland,'' Bridges said. ``They're not catching many crabs up there - so the market's better for us down here.''
Soft shell crab season generally starts in early April and runs through June. Hard crabs stick around at least until November. About 700 people throughout North Carolina crab commercially, and similar numbers work the waters of Virginia and Maryland.
From Manns Harbor on the Croatan Sound and other sounds and bays on the central Outer Banks, crab catches have varied considerably this spring. Until two weeks ago, total hauls of hard crabs had been poor. But prices have held high all season.
Watermen say water pollution, a cold winter and increased rockfish populations have eaten into their catches.
But because of similar problems - which seem to be taking an even greater toll on Chesapeake Bay crab populations - those factors have not taken a bite out of North Carolina crabbers' profits.
``We got better markets for what we get because they ain't got nothing up north,'' said Manns Harbor native Lee Craddock, 43, who has been commercially catching crabs for more than half his life. ``Fifteen years ago, I could get 6 or 8 pounds of crabs per pot. Now, I pull in 3 or 4 pounds, tops. In the long haul, the number of crabs I get has dropped considerably. But the price going up sure helps.''
Colington crab house owner Carson Beasley agreed. ``They haven't been quite as thick all at once, like they were last year,'' he said of his catches. ``Money-wise, though, it'sbeen much better. I'm getting 50 cents to a dollar more per dozen at least.''
That's because crab pots farther north along the Atlantic have remained empty this spring. In Maryland - traditionally one of the East Coast's largest crab-producing states - preliminary landings for May show that hard crab catches were down 56 percent from the average landings for 1982 through 1995. Peeler hauls dropped 25 percent over that average.
``In April, hard crab landings were down 90 percent from the previous year,'' Maryland Department of Natural Resources spokesman John Surrick said Monday from his Annapolis office. ``A significant number of our crabs died due to cold water this winter. By the end of this month, juvenile numbers - which have increased - should start showing up on the docks.''
Ellen Smoller, a fisheries manager for Virginia's Marine Resources Commission, sang a similar sad song about her state's blue crab industry. ``It's been real slow so far,'' Smoller said from her Newport News office. ``The water warmed up real slow this spring. And that interrupted the peeler run because the temperature kept going up and down too much for the crabs to shed.''
While biologists blame the weather on poor crab catches, watermen say other man-made factors are corrupting their crustacean catches. Crabbers around Virginia's Eastern Shore say heavy use of paraquat is slaughtering all the shellfish. Farmers have been using larger amounts of that herbicide during the past two years to kill tomato plants after the vegetables have been harvested.
``The whole damn shore is tomato farms now. And they all border creeks and streams,'' said Arnold Ray Evans, owner of Evans Seafood on Virginia's Pocomoke Sound. ``Farmers are spraying paraquat on their crops and it's running downstream. . . . Now, it's going into our ground water and our bays. It's devastating the seafood stocks.
``The crabs are dead in our pots. They're dead on the seaside. It's worse this year than I've ever seen,'' Evans said Monday from his Saxis, Va., seafood store. ``The cold weather killed some early. But we've had cold before. And we've never had this many crabs die before. Something's gotta be done.''
Wesley ``Red'' McDonald, who owns Chincoteague Fisheries, echoed such sentiments. ``We've seen crabs crawling up the banks to get out of the streams after a rain storm washes paraquat into the water,'' said McDonald. ``All that stuff's got to go somewhere. So it's going right where the crabs live and breed. The last two years around Chincoteague have been the worst for crab catches in 10 years at least.''
In 1994, Evans shipped an average of 1,000 bushels of crabs each week from his Eastern Shore, Va., business to New York, New Jersey and other Northern states. Last year, he sold about 225 bushels weekly to those outlets - with about eight dozen crabs to the bushel. This spring, he hasn't even been able to buy 500 bushels of crabs total.
And most of what he's getting comes from North Carolina.
``Folks still want crabs. But we just don't have 'em,'' Evans said sadly. ``It's devastating us.
``But it's good for Carolina. I've been getting a lot of crabs from Stumpy Point and Manns Harbor. And the costs are killing me.''
In 1995, Evans sold a bushel of hard crabs for $25. This year, he's charging $50 a bushel. Jumbo soft shell crabs have jumped from $12 a dozen to $22 a dozen during the same time.
``I'm working 250 pots myself. And I haven't caught a bushel of jimmies all year,'' said Evans, referring to the large male crabs that fetch the highest price. ``Overall, I'm only getting about half of what I was hauling last year. It's not natural for things to slack off that much in so short a time.''
Carolina crabbers say they just hope the peelers and other profitable shellfish keep climbing into their pots.
``The price'll go down as summer goes on,'' Bridges predicted from his Colington Island seafood shop. ``They'll start catching more crabs in the Chesapeake Bay soon. So most folks are shipping out what they can now.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
DREW C. WILSON
The Virginian-Pilot
Terry Kitching, 42, of East Lake separates blue crabs on the dock at
Benny's Seafood at Manns Harbor. Last year's $25-a-bushel price is
closer to $50 a bushel this year for many dealers trying to satisfy
seafood lovers' cravings. by CNB