Disaster declaration for the Chesapeake
by Matt Simon | September 24, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Posted in animalia, baltimore news, environment, food
It’s official. The levels of blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay have dwindled to into a disaster.
That’s according to the U.S. Commerce Department, as the Virginian-Pilot reports. It’s the first time such a declaration has been made.
Disaster declarations are made, among other reasons, to free up federal funds for those affected by the disaster. (Well, that is, if the federal government has any funds left available to even free up.) According to the article, local government officials estimate the economic hit on the crab industry to be as much as $15 million over the next three years.
Many crabbers still hold fast to the idea that the decrease in the crab population is due to some sort of cyclical nature of the crab population.
No, seriously.
According to that same article:
They note that crab abundance has always been cyclical and is greatly influenced by weather and predators, and that if government really wants to help, officials should get serious about cleaning up the Bay instead of regulating water men.
The Sun is running a similar article this morning. They report that the watermen are now eligible to receive low-interest small-business loans.
What do you think is the solution to the shrinking population of crabs in the Bay? Should we continue our restrictions on female catches? Should we focus on disaster declarations? Should we all stop eating crab?
Weigh in.
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September 24th, 2008 at 1:10 pm | Please log in to reply. | Log in to rate this comment | report this comment
Well limiting intake of crab is pointless - most of the crabs we eat here in baltimore aren't from the bay. Particularly if you're eating crabcakes...most of that comes from venezula and the gulf coast I think.
Most watermen universally ignore the catch rules anyway - I've seen plenty of female crabs in my batch over the summer...this summer has been particularly bad actually. Has anyone else notcied this? That being said, I'm not sure that restrictions would have any effect anyway.
I'm really not educated enough on the topic of crabbing or the ecological systems involved to comment further.
!
September 24th, 2008 at 1:20 pm | Please log in to reply. | Log in to rate this comment | report this comment
The crabbers have a point that cleaning up the Bay would help the crab population to rebound quicker, but it can't be the only solution. Also, I'm sure it would take a lot more than $15 million to clean up the Bay, and everything comes down to money, always.
If the crabbers organized and fixed the price for crab at an artificially higher amount, it may decrease demand for crabs and allow crabbers to stay in business as well. Most people won't just stop eating crabs for altruistic reasons; they need economic persuasion.
September 24th, 2008 at 1:51 pm | Please log in to reply. | Log in to rate this comment | report this comment
How about a retraining fund for the affected watermen? Living assistance while they take classes, courses and otherwise - and of course, paid tuition. The best part? Operating costs of such a program would scale directly with how many people participate. Also, the workforce would largely remain local, their anxiety levels would go down, and environmentalists would get fewer ulcers. A pipe dream proposal, but it might be a wise investment for us to 'stop digging' first.