[Kevin Smith]

Looks like the VA Watermen blame the VMRC for declines and have decided to not attend VMRC meetings until they get their way.

Please send letters of oppostion to your delegates & committee members to Proposed Bill # SB 1087. If passed this bill will add 2 more VA commercial watermen to VMRC?

This vote will be about the future of our marine resources and fisheries of the Chesapeake Bay!!

Letter to Editor Times Dispatch

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Published: February 7, 2009
Drastic Changes Needed On State VMRC Board

Editor, Times-Dispatch:
We need to get more watermen on the Virginia Marine Resources Commission board.

How can we have a professional, working VMRC without members of the maritime profession? We can't.

How do real estate agents and insurance salesmen manage a fishery? Not very well. The VMRC needs a major overhaul. For far too long, the board has had a stranglehold on the watermen.

Due to the mismanagement of this agency, the needs of our Chesapeake Bay and the men who work its waters have been ignored and neglected. The results are the drastic decline of the Bay's oysters, fish, and crabs.

I have personally begged VMRC to open up more oyster grounds so the watermen can work close to home, so they could save money on fuel and boat slip rent, and most important, so not every boat in the state is working one little area to death.

I am tired of watermen being blamed for overharvesting. It is VMRC's policies that have been the problem.

VMRC is allowing acres of oyster beds to lie there, silt over, and die.

VMRC requires all watermen to send in daily reports on their catches, the names of their boats, and who they sell their catch to.

Unfortunately, the VMRC doesn't seem to know what to do with this information. It could use it to see which areas are doing well and which are not -- without spending any more state money.

The watermen no longer go to the VMRC meetings -- not because they don't care, but because they do not have any say in the decisions that are made. Drastic changes must be made, or we will see not only the demise of the watermen, but our oysters, crabs, and fish as well. Can we afford that?

Tammy Croxton. Kilmarnock.

 

[topfish1]

Thanks for posting that .... good read....

Why let an oyster bed silt over? Why put oyster on a sancuary/reserve when they get disease and dye anyway......

I agree with him.

Thanks again....I'll make sure some letters are sent.

 

[Frank Kearney]

Looks like the waterman want it both ways.

 

[Thoroughbred]

Looks like the waterman want it both ways.

Imagine that!

 

[cuhollow]

Waterman letter Quote:
I have personally begged VMRC to open up more oyster grounds so the watermen can work close to home, so they could save money on fuel and boat slip rent, and most important, so not every boat in the state is working one little area to death.

I am tired of watermen being blamed for overharvesting. It is VMRC's policies that have been the problem.

The solution to overharvesting is to open up more oyster grounds to harvest? I am no expert on the subject but something doesn't seem right. Everything he said seemed more about waterman making more money than about any actual concern for the health of the bay.

 

[Thoroughbred]

Farming, farming, farming, farming...


....did I mention farming?

 

[stanleybros]

Farm subsidies?

You did fail to mention that.

 

[Black Irish]

Silting over? Who kept the bars from silting over before man came along?

Maybe the bars are silting over because they have been ground down to a couple of feet from the bottom. Before man came along with a power dredge, the bars were exposed at low tide and the wave action kept them nice and clean.

 

[Thoroughbred]

Farm subsidies?

You did fail to mention that.

Ok I'll say it Oyster Farm Subsidies

 

[biglee1]

Seems that with so many people with all the answers to everything that this would have been worked out years ago!

Come to think of it there wasn't much of a problem until the states got involved, and more involved, and even more involved.

 

[Thoroughbred]

Seems that with so many people with all the answers to everything that this would have been worked out years ago!

Come to think of it there wasn't much of a problem until the states got involved, and more involved, and even more involved.

Right, over fishing and poaching had absolutely nothing to do with it.

 

[biglee1]

Well, contrary to the belief of many, the oyster industry in Virginia was thriving and maintaining itself until the state decided it could manage the resource better and make a dollar while doing it. In the late 1800's early 1900's there were over 11 oyster houses between Urbanna and Waterview on the Rappahannock alone that shucked over 400,000 bushels each a year and all out of the Rappahannock. At no point was there more harvesting than during this period. The industry sustained itself well during this period and beyond because it was a year round business. In the spring all of the shells that were left from the previous harvest were planted back on the beds and seed oysters were planted all summer long. Yeah, aquaculture in a primitive form but it worked. The beds were constantly worked to prevent silting over and covering with sea grapes and replanted. Dermo and Msx have struck before, but the industry continued to cultivate, plant, seed, and harvest and it succeeded.

Then, in the 70's the state saw an opportunity for revenue and charged a shucking tax for every bushel that was harvested and shucked, and assumed the responsibility of planting and seeding through contracts on the Public rocks and created a situation where shucking houses saw more profit from harvesting of public grounds than maintaining their private beds. Slowly things declined until the diseases struck again in the 80's and the state ceased planting the shells and seed because it was just throwing the money away to the disease.

Then came all of the replenishment programs and the grants and 20 some years later, things are barely changed. Then a few years ago they finally listened to some of the watermen and let them start hand scraping in certain areas. They found some oysters, but what was more importantly discovered was that the few areas that they allowed to be worked annually started to produce a few more oysters each year, even in an area that is not prone to high striking. They found this to be so much the case, that the state decided to rotate areas to be opened so that the shells could be cleaned and become better clutch for striking as well as planting oysters on the grounds. They also found that an area that they had kept closed for over 15 years and decided to open had very little yield and a high mortality rate mainly because the oysters had smothered.

This is what the watermen mean when they talk about silting over, and the above knowledge is why I say that once the state decided they could manage better than anyone...... well it has led to a lot of the decline and problems we see today. I am not saying that commercial watermen should have a free pass now, but when you start to blame them you may want to know a little of the history and listen a little bit rather than writing them all off as imbiciles.

Also, I am not suggesting that stakeholder management is the solution, especially in some species that are more prone to sustainability problems because it takes so long to reproduce and such. But, the oyster is one example of a resource that was doing just fine until the states got involved. Also, this has created over time more of a strain on the crabbing industry because there was no summer time oyster industry to speak of and many watermen who never crabbed before in their life, turned to crabbing to sustain their families. Over time VMRC also put many restrictions and restraints that locked in many watermen into one fishery (especially the crabbing aspect) that caused an exploitation of the fishery as never seen, by preventing the traditional cyclical harvesting practiced by many, not all, commercial watermen i.e., fish one year, oyster another, and crab yet another thus reducing pressure on any species especially during a downturn.

"Right, over fishing and poaching had absolutely nothing to do with it." comments such as this ensures the thought that it is an all or nothing problem and a certain percentage should be assigned to a certain group therefore they are more to blame. WE ARE ALL TO BLAME!! Now lets start to listen and learn from each other and change the path we have been going down. Pointing fingers has not solved one problem.

 

[qdrose]

Well, contrary to the belief of many, the oyster industry in Virginia was thriving and maintaining itself until the state decided it could manage the resource better and make a dollar while doing it. In the late 1800's early 1900's there were over 11 oyster houses between Urbanna and Waterview on the Rappahannock alone that shucked over 400,000 bushels each a year and all out of the Rappahannock. At no point was there more harvesting than during this period. The industry sustained itself well during this period

I respectfully beg to differ. I can't buy that the huge dredging fleets harvesting millions of bushels in the late 1800's was "sustaining itself". Harvest data shows a large and steady decline well before the 1970s. Over harvesting was noted as a problem well before the turn of the last century. I recommend reading the book "The Oyster", by William Brooks, written in 1891. To quote Brooks which is eerily relevent to this thread;

"Every one now acknowledges that the condition of the oyster industry gives good reason for great anxiety. In times of hardship it is natural to look for some one to bear the blame, and for a long time our daily papers have been filled with letters from packers, dealers, brokers, dredgers, tongmen and planters, all throwing the responsibility on some one else. The important question is, what can be done to improve matters?

And his remedy, again published in 1891 very relevant;

"...the oyster problem is very simple. The demand has outgrown the natural supply, but it is easy to increase the supply indefinitely by oyster culture, and this all that is needed."

 

[rocksandblues]

The poor oyster had the perfect storm of over harvesting and environmental issues at the same time. I appreciate this civil discussion.

As for the fishery: I like to look at Florida as an example of what has worked. Since banning the nets the fishery in FL has blossomed beyond what was even imagined.

The last time I was there ballyhoo come right to the boat. two throws of a cast net and you are set. 5 years ago you had to buy your bait from men who worked all day to find that much.

 

[Black Irish]

qdrose, nice presentation, thank you.

 

[biglee1]

In Maryland there was a huge problem because the salinity levels did not allow for adequate natural replenishment. Most of the seed oysters for Maryland came from Virginia. The very example and remedy that you give of cultivation is the practice of which I explained in Virginia waters. The Rappahannock has the same issue, it generally does not have the salinity levels required to produce huge numbers of natural strike so the oysters were taken from the lower bay,where even today oysters strike and grow at a faster and larger rate than other portions of the bay, and cultivated them on the beds in the Rappahannock where the oysters grew until harvested.

Of course the decline started before the 70's, in the 50's the same diseases struck with devistation that occurred in the 80's but it rebounded because the industry continued to "cultivate".

Maryland and Virginia are different areas because of the proximity to the ocean and the salinity levels affect oysters differently. This is why Maryland's stock is more fragile than even Virginia's especially when left to natural replenishment. I am not arguing that cultivation isn't the answer, that is exactly what I am saying. I am also saying that it was an idea and a practice that did and was taking place until both states gradually took over and made it more reasonable and profitable for the oyster industry to rely on the states to manage the "cultivation" and they failed!

I have read the books but also have the experience and first hand knowledge to observe the situations.

 

[Fishafly]

Having been around the Machodoc Creek for some 40 years and remembering when you could walk the shoreline and pick up a bushel or more of oysters after a storm, it isn't "rocket science" to know that the oyster decline is attributed to a combination of factors, salinity, overharvesting, cow nosed rays, viruses and now, most recently "slime". I grow oysters in small baskets now from spat for my own personal use and they do just fine. I powerwash the slime off everything once a year. They simply cannot make it on their own.

Most notably and recent Dr. Jeremy Jackson, a scientist at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, has advocated the "rise of slime" as one of the consequences of nutrification (nitrogen and phosphorus pollution) of the coastal ocean. In his 2001 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Vol. 98, pages 5411-5418) he states "Today Chesapeake Bay is a bacterially dominated ecosystem with a totally different trophic structure from a century ago." Nutrification of coastal environments causes the prolific growth of suspended algae (phytoplankton) that cloud the water, die and settle to the bottom, creating anoxic (without oxygen) black muck, dominated by microbial activity. Biofilms, composed of both plants and the microbes that consume them (slime) are just another result of nutrification, as microbes colonize available substrate to decompose the over-abundant organic material. Humankind has changed the Bay from an ecosystem dominated by clear water, and inhabited by fish, crabs, oysters and the myriad of creatures associated with healthy oyster reefs, to cloudy water dominated by bacteria. The inhibition of oyster settling because of slime adds to the litany of human-induced activities, including overharvesting, habitat destruction by dredging and the introduction of a disease (MSX), that are responsible for oyster populations today roughly a percent of their original abundance.

In the early 60's oysters grew on everything in the Machodoc Creek area - piers, pilings, downed trees in the water, seawalls, etc. ...we know the problem - it is the same one for blue crabs, fish, menhaden, horseshoe crabs, and many other organisms in the bay! Is there a solution? ... look in the mirror. The solution will be very complex and will take sacrifice and a gargantuan effort from everybody associated with the bay ...as we are all an inextricable part of that ecosystem!

 

[Black Irish]

I totally agree Fishafly, but I would add one more thing. Any organism in a large environment like the bay, must be able to find a suitable mate to breed with. Let's call it a 'critical mass'. When a mature organism is stationary, like an oyster, the critical mass must be much larger to breed successfully, since sperm and egg drift aimlessly, relying on chance meeting for successful breeding.

 

[biglee1]

And to add to that B.I. there has to be suitable, clean clutch for the larvae to strike on.