DATE: Thursday, June 5, 1997                TAG: 9706050535

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: GLOUCESTER POINT                  LENGTH:   72 lines

UPDATED PLAN URGES RESTORATION OF CRAB HABITAT WITH NO FUNDING AVAILABLE, OFFICIALS COUNTING ON VOLUNTEERS TO RESTORE, PROTECT AREA.

The Chesapeake Bay blue crab has been studied, measured, gauged and charted for decades. No wonder. It remains the richest and most important seafood in Virginia - and state officials, crab merchants, environmentalists and fishermen want to keep it that way.

One problem, however: Scientists are at odds over the relative health of crab stocks today, offering sharply contrasting views of how many prized crustaceans lie on the muddy bottom of the Bay and its tributaries.

Federal biologists, in a comprehensive report released earlier this year, said the current population is stable and relatively strong when compared to historical averages. Overfishing, the report found, is not occurring.

But Wednesday, a study released by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science described crab numbers as steadily declining over the past decade - and perhaps susceptible to serious problems without careful conservation by both Virginia and Maryland.

``The stock is not stable and not necessarily healthy,'' said Rom Lipcius, a leading crab expert in Virginia and chief author of the new report.

The dispute illustrates the inexact science of fisheries management, and also underscores the difficult job that state wildlife officials have in setting policies that both protect fish and allow their harvest.

At one point Wednesday, George Lee, a representative of the Virginia secretary of natural resources, raised his hand and asked: ``So, who am I supposed to believe?''

The assembled scientists, state officials, media and fisheries managers who had gathered in Gloucester Point to discuss crab policies for the Bay, laughed. But no one had an answer.

Although the state and federal reports made opposite assessments, they come to the same conclusion: Virginia and Maryland need to work together in pursuing a conservative crab plan that avoids the a population crash like New England experienced with its signature species, the cod.

To that end, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - all partners in the Chesapeake Bay cleanup - released an updated crab management plan Wednesday that seeks to restore crab habitat and improve water quality.

The document for the first time identifies areas where silky underwater grasses should be replanted as protected habitat for young crabs. Juveniles burrow in the soft grasses, known as SAV, until they can fend for themselves in the wild.

The plan urges - but does not require - replanting efforts in much of the lower Bay in Virginia, including the southern reaches of the James River near Newport News and much of the Elizabeth River through Norfolk and Chesapeake.

No funds are available to launch the program. But officials hope that volunteers, civic groups and local governments will recognize the need for more SAV beds and organize plantings, or simply protect existing grasses from further disturbance.

``The Bay program has 14 management plans for fisheries, and almost all of them deal with harvests,'' said Ann Swanson, executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Commission. ``This one takes the quantum leap of adding habitat conservation and improved water quality to the mix. It's a big difference.''

The plan does not recommend new environmental regulations - and neither does Lipcius in his crab report.

He said Virginia and Maryland have enacted plenty of well-intentioned rules protecting crabs in recent years, and urged that both states implement and enforce them.

Asked how crabs can better be conserved, Lipcius suggested an expansion of no-fishing sanctuaries, like the one at the confluence of the Bay, the James River and the Elizabeth River in Hampton Roads.

There, crabbing is unlawful between June 1 and Sept. 15, when millions of female crabs are spawning at the mouth of the Bay.

A study presented Wednesday by Rochelle Seitz, a marine biologist working with funds provided by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, estimated that as many 4 million crabs use the Hampton Roads sanctuary in late summer.

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