Chesapeake watermen fear blue crab not coming back

[Tab]

Source: Associated Press

RIDGE, Md. - Chesapeake Bay crabber Paul Kellam has advice for the teenage boys who help tend his traps every summer: You better have a backup plan.

It's an anxious summer for watermen harvesting the Chesapeake's best-loved seafood, the blue crab. The way some see it, the crabbing business here isn't just dying. It's already dead.

Crabs have thrived in the bottom muck of the Chesapeake and its tributaries even as centuries of overfishing harmed oysters, fish and other species in the nation's largest estuary. Now blue crabs are in trouble, too, and when they go, a way of life is sure to go with them.

"There was a time when crabbers were only out here from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Now, it's about all we have left," says Kellam, 53, steering his 30-year-old rig "Christy" out of the Potomac River and onto the bay for a day of crabbing. The contradictory decor in the cabin sums up the outlook of today's waterman: a red wooden good-luck horseshoe dangles over a mud-splattered copy of "The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook."

The bay's blue crab stock is down about 65 percent since 1990 due to overfishing and water pollution, according to Virginia and Maryland fisheries managers. The states have imposed steep cuts on this year's female crab harvest, aiming to reduce the number of crabs taken by more than a third.

For Kellam and his neighbors in southern Maryland, where the working rigs and crab picking houses that sustained these communities for generations have been replaced by yachts and vacation homes, hopes are dim that the blue crabs will ever come back.

"It's looking worse every year," says Bob McKay, who at 74 is the oldest working waterman in St. Mary's County. He still sells crabs out of a shed in his yard but doubts the industry will live much longer than he does. "I don't know what the solution could be."


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080716/ap_on_bi_ge/blue_crab_blues

[BronxBoy]

1. This is not good!

Thanks for posting this.

If a bottom feeding scavenger is being wiped out, the future doesn't look bright.

And I'm not being sarcastic in case that is needed

[Tab]

2. Although, and I apologize if I misread your post

it's not being wiped out because of lack of stuff higher on the food chain, it's being wiped out because it itself is desirable (to us) and we overfished it and didn't cultivate it.

Although what effect that has on the food chain, I couldn't say. But I agree it can't be good, either from an ecological sense, or an economical sense.

[BronxBoy]

3. Oh No...No apologies necessary

I just wanted to make sure no one misread my comments as "It's just a bottom feeding scavenger"

This is very bad

[alarimer]

27. Because of the blue crab life cycle, they will be almost impossible to aquaculture.

Crabs go through a number of metamorphoses before they are the size that can be eaten. The zoea (larvae) are planktonic which present a special problem. Also they require a certain amount of freshwater, especially for spawning.

[MH1]

39. Not mainly due to overfishing (according to the article)

The main culprit is water pollution and soil runoff from development throughout a watershed that is home to 10 million people. Excess nutrients wash into the Chesapeake, causing algae blooms and choking the native plant life that crabs rely on for food and habitat. In the summer, large swaths of the Chesapeake contain so little oxygen that scientists call them "dead zones," because few critters can live there.

...

But Thomas Courtney, who sells Kellam the alewife fish he uses for bait, laughs when asked whether state efforts to revive blue crabs will bring them back.

"It ain't what we're pulling out of the water. It's what we're putting in the water," says Courtney, 62. "You've got a cornfield, 20 acres, you put 80 or 90 houses on it, hook 'em up to sewer pipes, put roads and ditches down. That's what's destroyed the bay. It ain't us. They let development take over and then, that's it, we're done.

I hope readers consider this when you're having fun at the shore, or putting fertilizer on your lawn.

[Chulanowa]

42. Overfishing does have an impact

After all, crabbing is still going full tilt while those pollutants are washing into the bay.

Fishing industries have this odd idea that their catch has an infinite supply. Even after the collapse of the Grand Banks cod fishery, the slow decline of the Alaskan Salmon fishery, and now it looks like blue crabs are dropping out of the spotlight, too.

There need to be more protests and boycotts against Red Lobster and Long John Silvers.

[skepticscott]

7. Well, if lobbyists were wiped out

would that be all bad?

[cstanleytech]

4. "I don't know what the solution could be."

Gee, heres a radical idea, try not to over fish and stop polluting.
OMG, who knows it might actually work!!!

[skepticscott]

8. It's a tough situation

If you tell people that they have to cut their catch in half or pretty much all of the fish/crabs/whatever will be gone in 5 years, but half their current catch isn't enough for them to make a living on. It doesn't do much good for the catch level to sustain the crabs if it doesn't sustain them. They have a choice between seeing their business go bankrupt now or in five years...which would you choose? On top of that, most of these people know that even if they do obey catch limits, there will always be people who won't, and who will take as much as they can no matter what, so they don't see the point of cutting their income drastically now when there's no realistic hope for a long-term benefit.

[SquireJons]

24. Over-harvesting is the problem

I've spent over 25 years going to the Northern Neck (Virginia's area across from Maryland's Eastern Shore). The first year I went out there was 1979, and back then you could drop a crab pot off the end of your pier and within a day you might have a couple dozen crabs. Now you'd be lucky to get one.

The reason is that now there are a lot more crabbers, and they crab all year round and put their pots everywhere. You can't even get your boat to your pier anymore. The crabbers will literally put their pots a foot from your pier, and if you try to remove them, the crabbers have the legal right to shoot you. It's ridiculous and needs to be addressed.

Personally, I'd like to see a 5 year ban on blue crab harvesting (and blue crab is probably my favorite food). To hell with the crabbers if they don't understand the need. They don't care about anyone but themselves and seem to be dumber than the crabs they harvest.

On top of all that, apparently sometime in the 90's a new crop of waterman began to work the area; Vietnamese immigrants and they have a very different way and attitude about fishing. From what I've heard, their work ethic is 24/7, 365 days a year. They just don't stop. So the only way I see of saving the crabs (and everything else in the Chesapeake Bay eventually) is to impose periodic bans and then regulate the number of licenses issued for commercial boats.

[alarimer]

29. It isn't the only problem.

The Chesapeake Bay has a number of environmental problems, especially over-development of the shore which affects water quality.

[alarimer]

28. They are also facing competition from other areas.

As I mentioned in another post, Gulf Coast blue crab populations are still healthy, so many places in the east now get their crab from Texas or Louisiana. The same is true for oysters.

[snooper2]

37. You cut the number of people fishing in half...

Same thing they do for crabbers in the bering sea...

They cut the number of boats able to go out..

[rateyes]

5. I used to live on the Chesapeake Bay, and know many crabbers...

The solution, and it's a tough one, is to severely limit the total number of crabs that can be taken out of the bay---imposing the limit even on those who crab for a living. They'll have to do something else like clamming, fishing, etc.

When the rockfish were in deep trouble about 20 years ago, strict limits were placed on those fish. They eventually rebounded and the Bay is teeming with them. And, that, BTW could explain a lot of the problem with crabs. Rockfish love to eat crabs. If you upset the balance by taking too many of one species, you can effect a lot of the others. More Rock mean fewer crabs. The marine biologists really need to get a handle on this, though.

Another factor is the amount of rain that has fallen. There was a lot of fresh water that made it into the Bay this past spring.

[Phred42]

6. Samew thing happened to Salmon Fishermen i n Alaska 10 years ago and the lower 48 just this year

[BronxBoy]

11. In your opinion

it's more of a bag limit issue? I remember the striped bass limits. They also had to conten=d with pcbs. It did turn around

Think this situation is similar?

[rateyes]

15. I think it can. You just have give the species a chance to survive. nt

[salguine]

12. I live on the Bay now. I've never been able to understand why people

think you can just take, take, take, and take and never decrease the population. If you continue to keep plundering without limit, sooner or later you're going to plunder it to death. I don't understand how dense people have to be before they don't grasp that.

[barb162]

41. Very incredibly dense.

When there are no crabs left, they won't look in the mirror and conclude they were part of the problem.

[yellowcanine]

9. Total ban on taking females is only solution imo.

[soothsayer]

17. Yup. I'm nearly positive you couldn't eat the females, when I was a kid. I'm horrified to see

them on menus now. Stupid.

[AllentownJake]

20. You couldn't when I was a kid

and that was 15 years ago.

[pansypoo53219]

10. lake winnebago put a limit on sturgeons at the turn of acentury in 1900 or so.

and now our thriving sturgeon is helping are the idiots who over fished their stocks over the world. but go ahead. kill you golden egg laying goose.

[soothsayer]

18. Used to be sturgeon in the Potomac when G. Washington was around.

Some think they might still be there (there are weird large critters in there munching at the deep bottom).

[pscot]

13. Easter Island

The guy who cut the last tree, knew it was the last tree because he could see that there wasn't another tree standing on the island. He cut it anyway; No trees, no boats, no fishing, no people. The lesson is simple: fuck with mother nature and die. We're just slow learners. But it will get through even the thickest heads, in due time.

[ladjf]

14. The human race "death machine" blunders on.

[Lorien]

43. Jared Diamond should be required reading in every high school

We're not learning from history-or science. Some heads are also too thick to ever understand it.

[pscot]

45. True dat

n/t

[Psephos]

16. Economists call this kind of situation "The Tragedy of the Commons"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons

A similar problem arises in politics. Each party works to maximize its own short-term power and depletes or damages the national good.

[AllentownJake]

19. That's so sad

One of my fondest memories is going to a dock in Ocean City, MD with my father at 4 am every summer vacation to go crabbing. We'd leave chicken and fish heads out for a few days in the sun than go crabbing 2-3 days we were at the beach. We never took females and always measured the crabs to make sure they were legal. We'd catch about 40-50 crabs than go back for a crab feast back in the condo we rented. I had hoped to do it if I have children. The really sad thing is the last time I did this was 14 years ago when I was 16 and there were plenty of crabs than.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

21. Why not pay the watermen to help restore the Chesapeake Bay?

They've got the boats and the knowledge of the area. They could be employed to restore wetlands, test water and wetland soil quality, create and maintain oyster reefs, and any number of other ventures.

[sudopod]

32. Why not this?

Great idea! These guys would behave and leave the crabs alone to regrow for a few years if they knew there would be something else to put food on the table. Might as well be something that adds to the solution, rather than the problem.

[provis99]

22. why aren't there crab farmers in New England?

the Chinook salmon are being successfully farmed in Canada, catfish are farmed in Mississippi, shrimp in Louisiana, why don't they crab farm, too?

[AllentownJake]

23. Cause the Crabs live off of MD, DE, and NJ?

[alarimer]

30. Blue crabs are found thorughout the Gulf of Mexico as well.

The overall population as a whole is healthy. Only in some areas are they in trouble.

[yellowcanine]

34. Most "Maryland Blue Crab" on the menu is not from the Chesapeake Bay these days.

Sad state of affairs. I do believe that too much sediment is part of the problem for both blue crabs and oysters in the Chesapeake Bay.

[alarimer]

47. Water quality problems in general.

A lot of agricultural runoff is to blame (also to blame for the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico- something that is only going to get worse with more land turned over to corn for ethanol). And development and destruction of wetlands and estuaries, which are vital for marine animals such as crabs. I wouldn't blame the crabbers too much. It is likely that even eliminating all harvesting will not help much.

[freethought]

33. Problems with that approach

The blue crab's range extends to Nova Scotia, however you don't find them in any great abundance north of Cape Cod. The mid-Atlantic is prime area for blue crab.

Not all fish are easily subjected to farming. As a poster on this thread already made clear, the life cycle of the blue crab makes them nearly impossible to farm commercially.

[cap]

25. cheney and rumsfeld own homes on the Chesapeake

they don't eff'n care! It's the pollution from untreated sewer plants upstream, and runoff from farms and overdevelopment as well as the fishermen taking too much. The EPA isn't monitoring the Chesapeake like they used to.

These guys don't care that they live on the waterfront and are eating fish imported from Asia> They just don't care.

It stinks. The Chesapeake used to be clear enough to see your toes. Now it is murky.

[alarimer]

26. Many of the crabs sold in Maryland and Virginia come from Texas.

Where the blue crab population is still healthy. And probably from other parts of the Gulf of Mexico. The Chesapeake Bay has been poorly managed for years. Until they get more freshwater flowing and clean up the water, blue crabs, oysters and other species will continue to suffer. It is not simply a matter of overfishing (although that may be an issue too). The ecosystem as a whole is not managed sustainably. Too much shoreline development, among other issues. We Americans are notoriously bad at thinking in the long term.

[The Stranger]

31. Congratulations, your planet is dying.

[WriteDown]

35. All too common...

Commercial overfishing is so common it is scary. Reminds me of the striped bass off of Long Island. They decimated that population with close shore netting.

[The Stranger]

36. Another symptom of overpopulation -- we have overfished to try to feed ever increasing populations.

But why can't this story get one more recommendation after all of these people have posted under it?

[Atman]

38. I remember the days of $6 platters of blue crabs; last time I had 'em $35 for three.

They were big and good. But jebus. Mind you, the cheap platters of crabs were back when in lived in Florida years ago, but you could get an entire plate of 'em, about six-ten crabs, for almost nothing. We went to a crab shack last time we were down there and it cost us $35 for three crabs and a couple side dishes.

It's kinda weird, though, hearing this old man lamenting the "good ol' days." It was those good ol' days which CAUSED this problem, at least in large measure. Pollution is also part of the problem, sure, but what has this old guy done in that arena, either? I'm making assumptions, of course, because I don't know the guy at all, but I'm curious. A lot of these guys are very conscious of such issues because it is where they make their living, but people of his age in particular were in their hey day when there talk about overfishing and pollution was almost unheard of.

.

[The Backlash Cometh]

40. Were they not forewarned?

[opihimoimoi]

44. BSA of America...BE PREPARED...How much research on propagation, hatchery, nursuries would cost?

Was it ever funded? When last funded? Is it working? If not...why not>>>>Is a water restoration program under way? is it effective?

[TZ]

46. Its not overfishing thats the problem, IMHO

Its the health of the Bay...Look..the rockfish came back from overfishing because its not as sensitive and can be farmed.
But the Chesapeake Bay's oysters are in big trouble as well..The Bay was getting a bit healthier back in the 90's but I really believe that the 4 years that Erlich was in office was very damaging to recovery efforts.
The chicken farms on the Eastern Shore have contributed to a lot of damage to the Bay..Under Parris Glendening, despite him being a incredibly unpopular governor here, he did a lot to reign in the farmers from polluting too badly. Erlich made no effort to do that..So years of progress in getting the bay healthier went out the window.
Its probably too late for crabbing limits to do any good, sadly..