THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 14, 1996 TAG: 9608140328
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 104 lines
Last year, about 10 crabs crawled around in each trap Joby Beasley pulled out of the water near his Outer Banks seafood house.
This month, more than 30 of the blue-clawed crustaceans cram each wire pot.
Despite predictions of a disasterous season, North Carolina and Virginia watermen recently have been reaping a bountiful harvest of hard crabs.
North Carolina crabbers, especially, are enjoying huge hauls.
The August catch has been so good that some crabbers are being turned away by buyers, or limited in the amount they can sell.
Some seafood dealers have had to close shop two or three days a week because they can't find buyers for all the shellfish. Picking-house operators haven't been able to keep up with piles of crabs awaiting their nimble fingers.
Prices have plummeted at the docks. Watermen who were getting 40 cents per pound for hard crabs last month now are thankful to get 20 cents. That hardly buys bait and gas, some watermen say.
But the prices are great for crab consumers. Live male crabs that sold for $65 per bushel last summer are priced at $50. Packaged backfin crab meat, cleaned and ready for cooking, has dropped from $15 to $10 per pound.
``It's all supply and demand. And there's plenty of crabs out there right now,'' Beasley said Tuesday from the Beasley seafood shop near Kill Devil Hills. ``The price we're being paid is about half what it was. But the crabs are all over the place. It's hard to say why they came back.
``But I know I'm glad they're here.''
At summer's start, it seemed, crab populations in the Chesapeake Bay and the North Carolina waters of the Albemarle were waning, troubled by cold weather, polluted waters and - some claimed - ravenous rockfish that were eating up the young shellfish. May's crab landings were down by 56 percent in Maryland alone. Biologists, seafood sellers and watermen said crab catches were crashing toward all-time lows.
But in August, the tide began to turn.
``It was terrible 'til last weekend. Now, I'm getting three times as many crabs as I did three weeks ago,'' said Poquoson waterman Lee Ferguson, 61, who has been crabbing around Virginia's peninsula for 35 years. ``I didn't think it would pick up as much as it did. I expected it to keep dropping. But we've gone from 100 pounds a day in July to 400 pounds a day this week.
``Just when you think you know something about a crab, they'll prove you wrong.''
Roy Insley, who directs the planning and statistical department at Virginia's Marine Resources Commission, said some of the crab comeback might be because of management restrictions that Atlantic states have put on the popular creatures. North Carolina has had a cap on the number of commercial crabbing licenses since 1994. Virginia froze commercial shellfish license sales April 1. Virginia also limits crabbers to 300 pots each in tributary waters and 500 pots per person in open waters. And Virginia has closed about 22 square miles of Hampton Roads waters to commercial crabbing in the past two years.
``Crab dredge sanctuaries and cull rings in pots that allow little crabs to escape all have helped,'' Insley said Tuesday.
``Prices have dropped to a 10-year low - that's an indication of how good crabbing's been this month in Virginia and North Carolina,'' Insley said.
Virginia watermen are pulling in five to 10 cents more per pound for hard crabs than their North Carolina counterparts. But increased catches from the Outer Banks are eating away at everyone's profits. Crabbers may be hauling in twice as many crabs as they did last summer - but their paychecks remain steady because of the price drop.
More than 2,000 people hold commercial crabbing licenses in Virginia. North Carolina has about 700 licensed crabbers. In 1994 - the most recent year for which National Marine Fisheries Service data is available, landings showed:
North Carolina watermen caught 55.5 million pounds of blue crabs.
Virginia crabbers caught 33.3 million pounds.
Maryland fishermen hauled in 43.5 million pounds.
``Virginia and Maryland have had a few crabs this summer. But we've had a really good year - especially this past month,'' Benny O'Neal said Tuesday from his Wanchese seafood shop. O'Neal spent 20 years pulling crab pots in North Carolina's Albemarle Sound. This is the second summer he's sold crabs wholesale on the Outer Banks.
``Prices have dropped in Philadelphia, New York and Baltimore - where we ship 'em. We had to close down seven or eight days in the last three weeks and tell the guys to lay off fishing because we don't have any place to sell their catches. Other days we've put a limit on them,'' O'Neal said. ``Told them we can't buy more than 800 or 1,000 pounds per person a day. Just can't find a market to move 'em.''
Connie Sadler, whose husband Greg catches crabs near their Manns Harbor home on the North Carolina mainland, said prices have dropped so much that some crabbers are no longer earning enough to make a living. She knows three watermen, at least, who are trying to sell their boats and get out of the business. She started steaming crabs this month - and selling them door-to-door - just to keep up the family income.
``We spend $100 a day on bait and $20 at least on gas. Then, if he catches 800 pounds, he gets about $160,'' Sadler said of her spouse. ``He crabs by himself now because he can't afford to hire a crew. He's out there from 5:30 in the morning 'til 1:30 p.m. or so. Then I steam what I've got orders to deliver and he sells the rest to a picking house.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by DREW C. WILSON, The Virginian-Pilot
Don Perry of Colington sorts blue crabs, or he would if they would
cooperate. This year the crustaceans seem to be crawling all over
each other to be caught. Last year, a pot haul might be 10 crabs.
Now, it's 30 to a pot, meaning lower prices for consumers.
Photo by DREW C. WILSON, The Virginian-Pilot
Michael Ambrose of Colington, N.C., unloads a 2,000-pound catch of
blue crabs from a haul of 326 pots Tuesday. This month, those
watermen not being turned away outright by wholesalers are earning
less. by CNB