There apparently is an answer - or at least an estimate - of how many derelict crab pots there are bumping around the bottom of Maryland's portion of the Chesapeake Bay.

A few days ago, I posted here about the results of an effort last winter by Virginia watermen to retrieve lost aka "ghost" pots in their waters.  They pulled up more than 8,600.  At the time, I wondered how many more there might be north of the Old Dominion, still catching and killing crabs and other fish and animals in Maryland waters.

Kim Couranz of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Chesapeake Bay office reports that her people have been hard at work studying the impact of ghost pots in Maryland's portion of the bay.  A couple years back, in collaboration with the state Department of Natural Resources, they did a survey and determined there are about 42,000 "ghost" pots loose in Maryland waters.

Next question is, what if anything is to be done about them?

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:50 AM in crabs | Permalink | Comments (4)
                       

The roundup last winter by Virginia watermen of derelict crab pots found there are plenty of them lurking in the Chesapeake Bay - and they keep catching and killing crabs, and other aquatic life.

Virginia paid out-of-work crabbers $300 a day plus fuel to scour the bay bottom for the "ghost pots,"as they're known - wire-mesh crab traps that get lost when cut loose from their markers by storms or passing boats.  Using side-imaging sonar, they found and retrieved more than 8,600, according to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, which set up and supervised the effort.  They also collected 61 abandoned fishing nets, plus assorted other debris, including a baby stroller.

The pots evidently keep catching years after they've been lost. As seen in this photo from VIMS, the recovered pots held almost 5,000 crabs and other animals, including fish, eels, turtles, a duck and a muskrat.  Scientists figure each derelict pot, if still functional, can catch and kill up to 50 crabs a year.

If that many abandoned pots were found in Virginia waters of the bay, how many might there be in Maryland? 

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:57 AM in crabs | Permalink | Comments (5)
                       

Crabbing season began in Maryland today, and watermen and biologists are both hoping there are more crabs to be found in Chesapeake Bay.   They won't know if things are really looking up, though, for another couple weeks.  That's when the results of a winter-long survey of the bay's crabs are expected to be announced. 

The tally is taken by dredging up crabs from some 1,500 spots around the bay as they slumber on the bottom in chilly water.  You can read more about it here. The survey will determine whether Maryland and Virginia will hold the line on catch restrictions now in effect. The abundance of crabs is an important indicator of the bay's health, since they roam the whole bay and rely on healthy underwater grasses for shelter.  They've been relatively scarce lately, according to the annual survey, so the catch has been even more tightly limited.  That scarcity - both natural and man-made - is a big reason why it's cost a lot more in recent years to enjoy that Maryland summer tradition of feasting on steamed crabs.

The photo above, by Sun photographer Lloyd Fox, is of Brian Pierce in Rock Hall readying his stock of about 1,000 crab pots.  You can read more about the upcoming season here in the story I did for The Baltimore Sun.   You can also watch a brief video here  of Pierce talking about his fortunes crabbing as he prepares his pots.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:17 AM in crabs | Permalink
                       

The actions taken by Maryland and Virginia last fall to curtail the harvest of female blue crabs were suggested, it seems, by this state's top conservation official - 85 years ago.

Paul McCardell, ace librarian here at The Baltimore Sun, brought me a photocopy of a May 25, 1924, story quoting the state's conservation commissioner saying that "many young crabs are being killed annually because of inadequate protective legislation."

Swepson Earle, the commissioner, characterized the crab supply that spring as "normal," but he also said that the industry had declined in the previous 15 years.  Back then, he noted, there were 75 crab houses in Crisfield alone - more than we have statewide now - and in 1910 they had reported shipping a total of 120 million soft crabs and 25 million hard crabs. 

Crisfield was the seafood capital of Maryland then, if not the entire Chesapeake Bay.  But those numbers are pretty staggering - particularly when you consider that scientists now are trying to get the crab population back up to 200 million adults for the entire bay.

Commissioner Earle thought the problem then was in Virginia, where that state allowed its watermen to catch females, dredging them from the bottom in late fall and winter.  He called for the state to curtail or prohibit catching of females, particularly those carrying visible egg masses, or "sponges" outside their shells.  Virginians typically would rebuff such finger-pointing, and question why Maryland allowed its watermen to catch females in the fall as they migrated down the bay to await spawning in spring.

With scientists warning last year that the bay's crab stock was dangerously low, Virginia joined Maryland in attempting to reduce the catch of female crabs.  It banned the winter dredging altogether.   According to Virginia officials, the restrictions succeeded in reducing the overall catch of females.  We're still waiting to hear officially what happened in Maryland, though natural resources officials say watermen reported an increase in harvest, rather than a reduction.

(Photo by Glenn Fawcett of The Baltimore Sun)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:41 PM in crabs | Permalink | Comments (1)
                       

The state's plan to deactivate, or "freeze," unused commercial crab licenses provoked cries of anger and anguish last night from a mostly grey-haired crowd in Annapolis.

A public hearing on proposed crabbing regulations for this year focused almost exclusively on a proposal to prevent those commercial crab license holders who haven't reported catching any crabs in five years from getting back in the business. 

"I'm being penalized for not catching crabs, and I can't understand why," said Francis Watts of California, in St. Mary's County.

The Department of Natural Resources says it's trying to prevent those who haven't been crabbing from jumping back in once the crustacean population begins to recover, thus undermining the stock's recovery. It has proposed "freezing" the licenses of those who hold "limited crab catcher" licenses to deploy up to 50 crab pots or trotline for the beautiful swimmers.  The freeze would apply to anyone holding one of those licenses who didn't report catching any crabs from 2004 through last year.  Exemptions would be allowed for those in the military, those who recently entered the fishery through an apprentice program and those who acquired their license within the past two years from someone else.

DNR says that they expect the freeze to apply to as many as 1,000 of the state's 6,000 licensed crabbers.  The frozen ones would be barred from commercial crabbing until the Chesapeake Bay's crab population reaches what scientists consider a sustainable level - roughly 200 million, according to the latest estimates - for at least three years. 

Most of the 70 or so who turned out last night at Calvert United Methodist Church in Annapolis for the state's first hearing on the new rules were 50 years or older.  Many were upset that they might be prevented from getting into crabbing in their retirement, and complained bitterly about not being warned that they would lose their right to crab if they didn't use it.

"It's a low blow.  It's a cheap trick to do something about the crabs .. and we're not the ones catching them," said Charles Phillips, 57, of Salisbury.  He said the state was misguided in fearing a resurgence of crabbing from others like him holding the unused licenses, suggesting that many would be off the water because of infirmity or death in a few years.

Several said they had had crabbing licenses for years, decades even, but had been unable to use them because of the demands of their regular jobs or health problems. 

"I haven't crabbed in years, but felt if I was paying $60 a year I was investing in my retirement," said George Sliker, 62, of Upper Marlboro.  Like his other investments, he said, this one looks to be fruitless now.

Sliker and others contended the state should pay them to retire their licenses.  They noted that state officials said they intended to use at least part of the $10 million in federal aid they'd received for crab industry relief to buy back crabbing licenses.

Continue reading "Old-timers hot over crabbing freeze" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:27 PM in crabs | Permalink | Comments (2)
                       

Did Maryland's crab harvest actually increase last year in the face of seemingly severe catch restrictions?  Or did the state's watermen just inflate their catch reports to make it look that way?

That's the question at the heart of my story today in The Baltimore Sun.  The Department of Natural Resources says watermen reported catching more crabs last year, but state officials say they don't believe those reports.

It's more than a tempest in a crab pot.  If the reported catch is to be believed, the restrictions that the state imposed last year, including cutting off the harvest of female crabs during their fall migration down the Chesapeake Bay, may not have worked.  Maryland watermen complained bitterly at the time that the restrictions, particularly the early fall cutoff on female crabs, would put a serious dent in their incomes.

But DNR now says that Maryland watermen reported catching more females, not fewer, along with more crabs overall.  if Maryland's restrictions fell short, will the state have to crack down even harder this year? 

And how will the apparent misstep affect the state's new partnership with Virginia in working to conserve the bay's crabs?  The two states' governors stood side by side last spring and publicly pledged to reduce the catch of female crabs by 34 percent - so more females could have a chance to spawn and rebuild the population. 

Virginia, which has been accused by Marylanders of being lax about protecting crabs, braved verbal attacks from its watermen and even a legal challenge last year to impose its own catch restrictions.  Virginia reported this week that its watermen hauled in 37 percent fewer females - slightly exceeding the states' shared goal.

Why did Virginia succeed and Maryland fail?  And will Virginia decide to ease up if it thinks Maryland is not doing its share?  If that happens, what will become of the bay's iconic crustaceans, which scientists warn are seriously depleted and overfished?

Continue reading "Crab catch up - or down? Go figure" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 4:53 PM in crabs | Permalink | Comments (4)
                       

In reporting on Maryland's plans for regulating the crab catch next year in The Baltimore Sun today, I skipped over the state's proposal to "freeze" about a thousand crabbing licenses that apparently haven't been used in years.  It won't do anything right away, but could be important in the long run.

Though about 6,000 Marylanders hold commercial crabbing licenses, only about a third actively crab in any given year, state fisheries officials say. They worry that Maryland and Virginia efforts to bring the Chesapeake Bay's crabs back might be undermined if those thousands of dormant crabbers suddenly get back on the water for whatever reason - the beautiful swimmers become more abundant, or the prices paid watermen for their catch pick up.

So the Department of Natural Resources proposes to render "inactive" those "limited crab catcher" licenses that have reported no catch since 2004.  There are about 1,200 of those, according to Gina Hunt, deputy fisheries director. 

But the department intends to exempt certain licenses that weren't used, including those held by active-duty military personnel, participants in a fisheries apprentice program, or residents of an island three miles from the mainland (Smith and who else?)   State officials think that's about 200 folks.

Unused licenses would be frozen until the bay's blue crab population rebounds to about 200 million adult crabs, if it ever does. It's estimated to be around 120 million now, 70 percent below the 1990 level, as figured by the state's annual wintertime survey of crabs.

Dormant crabbers wouldn't lose their licenses right away if the state regulation goes through next spring.  Instead, they'd be unable to renew the licenses in September, when the current permits expire.  So they could go out crabbing next summer, but it would be their last for at least a few years.

Virginia already has yanked about 850 licenses issued for crab pots and peeler pots, said Jack Travelstead, fisheries chief for the Virginia Marine Resources Commission.  Those permits had not been used in five years.

To read a summary of Maryland's proposed regulations, which are to be published in January, click here.

(Photo by The Baltimore Sun's Glenn Fawcett)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 12:41 PM in crabs | Permalink
                       

With watermen still steaming over the catch restrictions imposed by the state this year to protect female crabs in Chesapeake Bay, the Department of Natural Resources is asking them to choose among three slighlty different plans for limiting the harvest next year.

All three options would end the catch of female crabs, or sooks, on Nov. 10, nearly three weeks later than the emergency cutoff ordered this year on Oct. 23, depriving many lower bay watermen of one of their most lucrative harvest times. 

But the state is looking to protect sooks mid-season by barring catch of them for three to four weeks, and limiting the daily catch as well.  One option would bar catching any females in all of June, while the other two variations of the rules would spare sooks for two weeks in June and then another week in mid- or late September.

With scientists warning that the bay's crab population is dangerously low, DNR cracked down this year, limiting the catch of females after Labor Day and halting it altogether in October.  Watermen complained that the winter crab survey on which the assessment was based was inaccurate, but state officials countered that it has reliably forecast the harvest for years. 

Seeking to spread the pain more evenly next year, state officials presented draft crab regulations for 2009 to members of the sport and tidal fisheries advisory committees Thursday night.  They're seeking public input before formally proposing new rules later this month.  To review them, go here.  To comment online, go here.

Officials say they will adjust the catch limits according to what this winter's sampling finds - easing up if more show up, or squeezing even more if fewer turn up.

(Photo by Baltimore Sun photographer Glenn Fawcett)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:00 AM in crabs | Permalink | Comments (1)
                       

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.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 5:22 PM in crabs | Permalink
                       

Within days of floating a plan to make all recreational crabbers buy licenses, the Department of Natural Resources is backpedaling on charging even a nominal fee for the annual permit.

On Monday night, DNR fisheries officials presented what they called "options" for licensing all crabbers not currently required to have one.  The estimated 65,000 Marylanders who have been allowed to catch crabs from the shore or their piers without licenses would need to plunk down $2 to get an yearly permit, officials said.  

That meeting was "poorly advertised and lightly attended," according to the Annapolis Capital, which broke the story.   When I contacted DNR to follow up, I was furnished with a copy of the PowerPoint presentation explaining that the department's ability to protect crabs and regulate their harvest is hampered by the lack of reliable information on the recreational catch.

Though the recreational catch is believed to represent only about 8 percent of the overall crab harvest, state officials say their surveys in years past have produced widely variable estimates, ranging from 1.6 million pounds to 2.9 million pounds.

The DNR presentation also suggested charging fees sufficient to cover the cost of the recreational crabbing surveys the state does - upwards of $400,000, according to a DNR spokeswoman.  The $2 fee on previously unlicensed crabbers wouldn't generate enough revenue, but hiking other crabbbing permit fees as well could pay for the survey, the presentation said. 

Licensing recreational crabbing has been a hot-button item, and lawmakers have balked in years past at messing with what some see as one of those fundamental freedoms in Maryland - to catch a few crabs to eat from your pier or shoreline.  The state managed several years ago to get approval to license crabbers who go out in boats, but until now waterfront property owners and casual dipnetters have been off-limits.

Apparently reasistance remains.  I wrote a short story for Thursday's Baltimore Sun about the licensing plan.  But before the story could run, I got a call from the DNR spokeswoman saying no decision had been made about going ahead, even though the presentation had outlined a timetable for publishing the regulation in a few weeks.  I wrote that the licensing was under consideration, and quoted a Republican delegate who criticized the licensing move, saying it was too much to ask people to pay even $2 in rough economic times.

The next day, I saw DNR Secretary John Griffin (pictured right), and he defended the need for licensing all crabbers.  He said it would improve the accuracy of the state's surveys if they knew how many people were crabbing and who they were.  But he said he was inclined not to ask for a fee; crabbers could just fill out some form - online, preferably - and get a permit without paying anything.

"Frankly, given the times we're in, the economics and all, if we do establish some sort of registry for crabbers who are not licensed, it's unlikely we're going to charge a fee," he said.  Acknowledging that department officials were taking some heat over the license plan, he said state officials would find some other way to pay for the crab catch surveys.

(Sun photos by Algerina Perna and Kim Hairston)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:46 PM in crabs | Permalink | Comments (1)
                       

Maryland natural resources officials declined to grant an appeal from watermen to lift for two weeks the ban on catching female crabs.

The ban, which took effect last week, has drastically reduced the catch of watermen, especially those in Tangier Sound, who earn a significant portion of their annual income harvesting the annual fall migration of mostly female crabs to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, where they spend the winter.

Watermen on the lower Eastern Shore asked for a two-week reprieve, arguing that they have few alternative means of earning a living.  DNR Secretary John Griffin, who met with them last Friday in Cambridge, said he'd consider the request, but decided Monday on "staying the course."

Griffin said state biologists couldn't justify easing the just-imposed ban on catching females if the state hoped to achieve a 34 percent reduction in the harvest of females this year.   Sharp cutbacks on the commercial harvest of females were imposed this year in Maryland and Virginia in a bid to rebuild what scientists said was a badly depleted population of female crabs mature enough to spawn.

Griffin said state officials "empathize" with watermen facing a lean winter, and DNR has offered $3 million in economic relief to watermen and crabmeat processing businesses affected by the cutback.  Watermen have been urged to apply by Friday for work next month rebuilding oyster reefs, with other jobs planned early next year on pilot oyster aquaculture projects.  Maryland and Virginia also are seeking $15 million each in federal disaster relief for affected crabbers.

In Virginia, meanwhile, watermen will not be able to catch female crabs after Tuesday.  A lawsuit challenging the legal authority of the Virginia Marine Resource Commission to halt the state's winter fishery dredging female crabs has yet to be heard, officials say.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 7:19 PM in crabs | Permalink | Comments (2)
                       

                                              Photo by Sun photographer Karl Merton Ferron 

Five watermen's groups in Virginia formed a coalition this week to fight fishing regulations pinching them and to push for cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay.

"We want to see a healthy bay because we're the ones who make a living off of it," said Ken Smith, president of the newly formed Virginia State Watermen's Association.  He was quoted in a story in the Newport News Daily Press.

Watermen in Virginia and Maryland are chafing under new crabbing restrictions imposed this year by both states.  With biologists warning that the bay's crab population is dangerously low, the two states moved to reduce the catch of female crabs by one-third.  In Maryland, that means an early end to the season for catching females on Oct. 23 - two months sooner than usual.

State officials have acknowledged that the harvest cutback will hurt watermen financially.  They rely on crabbing, one of the few significant commercial fisheries left in the bay.   Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown visited Tylerton, a remote fishing village on Smith Island, this week to see what the state may do to ease the impact.  Here's a story in the Salisbury Times about Brown's foray.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 12:25 PM in crabs | Permalink | Comments (2)
                       

Posted by Jon Morgan at 3:33 PM in crabs | Permalink | Comments (1)