NEWPORT NEWS
Almost everyone agrees the Chesapeake Bay blue crab is in serious trouble, even teetering on collapse. But finding a remedy is another story.
Take Tuesday night. After five hours of debate that ended shortly before midnight and included shouting, accusations and near-exhaustion, a state advisory panel grudgingly endorsed a slate of reforms on how and when Virginians can harvest blue crabs from the Bay and its tidal rivers and creeks.
Still, some questioned whether the changes - even if adopted and enforced - would do much to restore the state's most celebrated seafood species, whose abundance has fallen 70 percent in the past 15 years, according to scientific estimates.
"A lot of what we're proposing may not be worth the paper they're written on," said Pete Nixon, a Norfolk crabber and president of the Lower Chesapeake Bay Watermen's Association.
Chief among the recommendations is one that would cut the number of crab traps and pots allowed in the Bay by between 10 percent and 30 percent, beginning this year.
In addition, the Blue Crab Advisory Committee recommended that:
n no-harvest sanctuaries be extended two extra weeks each spring, to better protect adult females swimming toward spawning grounds in Hampton Roads;
n an extra escape hole, or cull ring, be required in crab pots statewide, to allow smaller, developing crabs to continue living and breeding;
n the state crack down on the practice of "agents" and "permit stacking," in which watermen loan their crabbing licenses to family, friends or hired workers, who then collect and sell crabs and share the profits.
The meeting Tuesday was described as the first step in a long and undoubtedly painful process toward adopting a new way of managing crabs in both Virginia and Maryland.
The two Bay states are wrestling with record-low harvests and failing strategies to reverse the trends. Maryland, too, is eyeing changes in its prized crab fishery and is brainstorming for potential solutions.
The underlying purpose of the Virginia reform package is to curb fishing pressures on weakened crab stocks, which also are stressed by pollution, lost habitat and predator fish, such as striped bass, croaker and catfish.
The state Marine Resources Commission will consider, and perhaps vote on, the package at its meeting Feb. 26 in Newport News.
Drawing on the conclusions of a scientific panel that spent the past year studying the problem, Virginia fisheries director Jack Travelstead said restoring crab populations must touch three pillars: controlling the number of people in the fishery, the number of pots in the water, and the amount of time spent fishing.
"The concern is that if we don't take additional measures," Travelstead said, "we could drop below the thresholds from which we cannot guarantee a recovery."
Scientists have defined sustainable crabbing levels - no more than 46 percent of the Bay's population should be taken each year, they say - but Virginia has crossed that line in 12 of the past 16 years, Travelstead said. "We have no choice but to react to that."
A favorite target of conservationists is the winter dredge fishery, in which watermen capture female crabs buried in the mud off Norfolk and Virginia Beach. The theory goes, if this practice were stopped, more females would survive and spawn babies the next spring.
But scientists and state officials said dwindling interest in dredging in recent years has cut winter catches to insignificant numbers. Noting that fewer than 50 work boats are harvesting crabs in this way this winter, they recommended no changes.
"Dredging this winter has been awful," said Pete Freeman, a Hampton Roads resident who has crabbed for more than 60 years.
Rick Robins, a seafood merchant and chairman of the state crab advisory committee, said the reforms discussed Tuesday are just the short-term measures that should be addressed. " What we don't want are more Band-Aids," he said, noting that Virginia has imposed 22 regulations since 1994 to restore crabs, to no avail.
Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com
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