The state has pledged to hire more than 520 watermen for oyster reef restoration work and another 84 watermen for "land-based work" to help ease the economic pain caused by the bay's blue crab fishery woes.  About 100 of them got their assignments 10 days ago, preparing 100 acres of oyster "bars" in Tangier Sound and the Patuxent and Severn rivers for planting new "seed" oysters in the spring.

The photo above, taken by The Sun's Doug Kapustin, shows the watermen on the Severn using their boats to dredge up oyster shells on the reefs.  The work removes a layer of silt and sediment that threatens to smother any new oysters that might be put there.  

The jobs are being financed with $3 million in capital funds set aside by Gov. Martin O'Malley.  Another $10 million is on its way from Washington in federal disaster relief funds.

Not every out-of-work crabber who wants state work is going to get it.  Nearly 700 applied, but the Department of Natural Resources ruled out 79 who it said had recently been cited for fishing violations, or whose applications were missing information.  Another 11 apparently missed the deadline for applying.

In or out, it seems that everyone who applied should have heard by now whether they made the cut or not.  DNR officials said they'd turned administration of the work program over to the Oyster Recovery Partnership.  The partnership is a state-created nonprofit that has disbursed millions in federal grants over the years to projects aimed at restoring oysters both for their ecological value and for their commercial worth. Its close work with watermen has been criticized by some, though others have praised it.  

The ORP apparently missed notifying at least one crabber until Monday, however.  Tony Gaines had called and emailed me over the past few weeks wanting to know what was up, saying he'd not been contacted and had no "tickets" for fishing infractions that could disqualify him.

Gaines said he finally got a telephone call from someone at the Oyster Recovery Partnership saying he was "still on the list for spring work."  That call came about an hour after I'd emailed DNR deputy secretary Eric Schwaab asking why Gaines had not been notified one way or the other. 

DNR spokeswoman Olivia Campbell said the partnership had focused initially on lining up those watermen who'd indicated they wanted fall work - figuring that those who siged up for spring work were in no hurry to hear.  Still, she acknowledged that it could be frustrating not to get any word.

Gaines had another, more fundamental question:  How does paying watermen to clean up oyster reefs - no doubt a worthy effort, given the depleted state of the bay's oysters - help crabbers whose income was pinched by a spotty catch, poor prices and state harvest restrictions?

The boat owners dredging oyster reefs were paid $500 a day and crewmen $150 a day.   But Gaines points out that many crabbers use smaller boats that aren't capable of doing dredging work.  They'll be eligible to do work in the spring, perhaps, putting baby "seed" oysters on the refurbished reefs.  Or else they could do land-based work, planting trees or refurbishing an aquaculture facility in western Maryland.  The pay for the land work is to be $15 an hour.

But that kind of labor may not be suitable for some crabbers, particularly elderly ones, Gaines notes.  Though still capable of netting crabs or trotlining, some crabbers may have bad backs or difficulty walking that would rule out hard, physical labor for them, he says.

State officials say they're still working on the program and that their intent has been to find work for watermen who may have no other fishing options until crabbing begins again in the spring.  Admittedly, there aren't many crab-related projects they could work on now.  Planting bay grasses, perhaps, but that's more of a warm-weather project, and one that requires neither a lot of labor or boats. 

Another more crab-focused project would be trawling the bay to recover lost or "ghost" crab pots that might keep snaring and killing crabs.  That may still be launched next year using the federal disaster funds, Campbell said.

Ultimately, time will tell if all those who wanted work to tide them over get it.  For now, though, let's hope they all get at least a postcard or phone call telling them whether they're on the hiring list, so they can plan accordingly.