In order to minimize the pressures on the Chesapeake Bay’s blue crab population, Virginia is paying watermen to stay out of the water, using $6.7 million in federal disaster aid to buy back crabbing licenses. Waterman Joe Palmer said that it is good catching things as he illustrates the challenge fisheries managers face in Virginia and Maryland as they attempt to thin a bloated fleet of watermen that harvests the sweet-flavored shellfish synonymous with the bay.
Jack Travelstead, a top fisheries manager in Virginia, informed that they don’t want to give up something that’s been a way of life for them and their father and probably their grandfather. Like many fisheries around the world, the Chesapeake simply has too many people working the waters. Watermen today pick at the remnants of a crab population that has declined for nearly two decades because of overfishing, pollution and loss of habitat.
Regulators in Virginia and Maryland have shortened the crabbing season, created sanctuaries and ended a century-old practice of raking up pregnant hibernating crabs from the bay’s bottom, which had a high kill rate. Virginia Marine Resources Commission has set up the buyback program using a reverse auction, in which watermen set a price for the value of the license.
It is said that the buyback is bankrolled by a portion of the $20 million Virginia and Maryland shared after the federal government declared the crab fishery a disaster one year ago. Some of the money has put former crabbers to work pulling “ghost pots” — traps abandoned on the bay’s bottom.
Watermen’s associations contend the buyback won’t provide nearly enough to crabbers who’ve invested thousands in gear. In Maryland, a similar buyback aimed at part-time crabbers fell well short of the 2,000 licenses the state had hoped to purchase, finding just 500 takers.
