Crab eaters feel the pinch of new state restrictions

NORFOLK

Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of the Chesapeake Bay crab season in Virginia. But with new state restrictions in place and crab populations in trouble, finding a dozen or two for holiday picnics and events will require some determination and plenty of cash.

A random survey of more than 20 seafood markets and restaurants across Hampton Roads and on the Eastern Shore showed that live or steamed crabs are available almost everywhere, though the big males, or Jimmies, are harder to locate.

Most merchants contacted this week recommended that prospective buyers call in their orders in advance and reserve their meal. Some said they

expect to have crabs on Monday, Memorial Day, but could not guarantee a supply through the long weekend.

The average price among the seafood outlets: about $12 for a dozen female crabs and more than $20 for Jimmies. The highest price? One merchant was asking $40 a dozen for the biggest, meatiest, No. 1 Jimmies.

A bushel can cost between $90 and $165, according to the phone survey - slightly higher than last year at this time, but far above historical market prices, store owners and watermen say.

"Over $110 for a bushel of crabs! Can you believe it?!" said John Graham, whose family has run Graham and Rollins Seafood Co. in Hampton for more than 60 years.

Graham pays workers to pick and pack most of his crabmeat, which is then sealed in containers and sold to other markets. But he also operates a retail store in Hampton. To handle the expected crush this weekend, Graham bought 20 bushels of crabs, all males, from North Carolina.

"There's just not a lot of them around here," he said, "and not as good quality, either. It's really bad out there now. I mean, really bad."

Graham said Virginia "waited too long" to take serious action in protecting crab stocks in the Bay, which have been waning for about 15 years. The state has approved more than 20 regulations since the mid-1990s, but they have not reversed the decline.

Earlier this year, the governors of Virginia and Maryland jointly announced their intention to cut by 34 percent the harvest of female crabs this season. They said they hope to give pregnant females a chance to spawn in greater numbers and spark a comeback.

To reach the goal, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission approved several measures in recent months, including the end to the winter dredge fishery, in which watermen scrape crabs, almost all of them females, from a muddy slumber in the waters off Norfolk, Virginia Beach and the Peninsula.

The commission also reduced the number of crab pots and traps that may be sunk in the Bay, did away with recreational crabbing licenses, extended by a month the time in which a huge no-harvest sanctuary zone is in effect, and started phasing out "permit stacking," in which watermen allow other workers to harvest crabs for them in exchange for part of the profits.

Maryland, which collects mostly males from its part of the Bay, is pursuing similarly strict regulations.

Because the restrictions are expected to cause economic harm to merchants and watermen, the two governors are petitioning the federal government to declare Bay crabs a national disaster.

A ruling is expected this summer.

Jack Travelstead, Virginia's director of fisheries, said crabbing so far this year has been sporadic, with "pockets" of lots of crabs and then almost none just yards away.

"It seems to be concentrated in the lower Bay, around Hampton Roads," Travelstead said.

He called prices "pretty high" but noted that scarcity has driven up rates for several seasons in a row now. "It's just the way the fishery is these days," he said.

Pete Nixon has crabbed in and around Norfolk waters for decades - in Broad Creek, the Lafayette River, the Eastern Branch of the Elizabeth River.

He has not gone out much this season, which began March 17, because of high fuel costs and because he had to finish some work at his other job, as a boat builder.

The pressures on watermen, he said, are getting almost unbearable. Many are leaving the business, getting second jobs, or encouraging their spouses to take jobs so they can afford health insurance.

"With the price of fuel, you almost cannot afford to go out and miss," Nixon said. "You need to get a good catch or you're pretty much done."

Nixon and his wife, Jamie, also run Atlantic Seafood on Sewells Point Road in west Norfolk, a mom-and-pop retail store where they sell crabs they catch and those they buy from other watermen.

He said crab prices are high this year but are being held in check somewhat by the weak economy.

"No one has any money," Nixon said. "People buy bread and milk and eggs and other necessities. But crab is not a necessity. So you have to be careful not to price yourself out of the market."

He is charging $10 for a dozen females and $20 for Jimmies - if he can find enough of them.

Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com