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Category: Readers' Opinions

Save the watermen

Sep 08

9:10 AM

For 400 years, watermen have fished and crabbed in the Chesapeake Bay. Working six days a week, they are up before dawn harvesting the day’s catch. Nobody is closer to the earth than a waterman. The problem is that we are in danger of losing this valuable part of our Virginia heritage.

This past winter the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences declared that the crab population has declined by 70 percent.

How reliable is this survey in accurately counting every crab in the Chesapeake Bay? How do we know this is not just a cycle? In the 1940s the crab population crashed. When the Virginia legislature was about to impose restrictions, the prolific blue crab rebounded.

The Virginia Marine Resources Commission imposed some heavy-handed regulations on watermen this past spring that would cut their ability to crab five months out of the year. Can you go five months without a paycheck? How will these folks get through the winter?

This past spring, Gov. Kaine declared the crab stock a disaster and recommended emergency relief for the watermen. This aid is still stuck in Congress, and the watermen will not see a penny anytime soon.

Pollution in the Chesapeake Bay has largely created the crisis with the blue crab. It’s a shame that the government has not effectively addressed this issue. The Environmental Protection Agency says it will not be able to meet its 2010 goal to clean up the Bay.

Why should the average person care about this issue? Seafood, enjoying the beach, and the watermen are part of who we are. If we lose the watermen, we lose a part of ourselves.

We need to raise our voices. Call your state officials and tell them to save our watermen.

Kathy Landes

Virginia Beach

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In Response to the Harolds of the World

Submitted by katmoon_2006 on Thu, 09/25/2008 at 5:35 am.

I have spent the last six months speaking with scientist, politicians, and the watermen themselves. I bring first hand knowledge about this issue and I assure you that I have done my research.

I appreciate Harold's comment because it brings to light the fact that the public needs to better understand this issue.

If the watermen take "the last crab out of the bay," they will not have a job. It is in their best interest to see the pollution of the Chesapeake Bay cleaned up. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation supports the watermen's efforts. (cbf.org)

As far as pollution is concerned 44% of the Chesapeake Bay is a dead zone where nothing can grow. 80% of the bay fails to meet EPA standards. We have nutrient runoff such as fertilizer, sewage treatment plants, and agriculture. It all runs in into the bay.

Truly, most watermen do not want federal assistance. They say just let me work.
In places such as Tangier Island, crabbing and fishing is the only job available and all the watermen know.
Kathy Landes

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Convenient omission?

Submitted by Harold Jackson on Tue, 09/23/2008 at 8:22 pm.

The writer failed to mention the role played by the watermen themselves in depleting the crab population. Their greed like the greed we see on wall street is the primary reason. Not pollution. Most watermen would willingly catch the very last crab given the chance.

No public assistance period. Watermen need to suck it up and choose a new profession. That's what the rest of us have to do when our jobs dry up.

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Who is next?

Submitted by charlesm on Tue, 09/23/2008 at 2:40 pm.

Now we need to bail out the watermen. Who is next? We can all fall on hard times and it is up to us, as individuals, to prepare for this, not the government (which means the taxpayers). No one tells you how to utilize your resources. If you act unwisely, you pay the consequences. If you don't save for a rainy day, don't cry when it rains.

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In a perfect world....

Submitted by Donkeyottie on Tue, 09/23/2008 at 10:37 am.

In a perfect world, we would stop spending billions of dollars in Iraq where they thank us by blowing our troops up at every opportunity. Instead these funds could be used to rebuild our failing bridges and highway systems and to put watermen to work restoring the Chesapeake Bay in a WPA type program. The thousands of unemployed construction workers could be put to work too and we, the citizens, would actually see some benefit.

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