Virginia to Reconsider Crab Dredge Ban

Public hearing set on whether to continue ban on winter blue crab harvest

Virginia regulators will hold a public hearing next month on whether to continue a ban on the winter harvest of blue crabs. The Virginia Marine Resources Commission must enact the ban on a year-to-year basis. The commission has done so for the past three years.

The Daily Press reports that the commission scheduled an August public hearing at its meeting Tuesday. Commission members say the ban on the winter crab dredge in the Chesapeake Bay is needed to rebuild the crab population.

Commission member Steven Bowman says the fishery hasn’t fully recovered from years of overfishing and pollution. Last year, 89 million pounds of crab were harvested in Virginia and Maryland, the largest amount since 1993.

Crab dredging is the most destructive form of fishing imaginable.  The crab caught are virtually all females carrying a full load of eggs to be released in spring, not to mention the crabs not caught but chewed up by the dredges digging them out of the sediment.  But there will be a lot of pressure from watermen to resume the dredge fishery this year as a result of improved numbers.  All for She-crab soup...