State regulators concede they erred a few years ago when they assumed a waterman could make a living on 100 crab pots.
Tuesday, they took steps to correct the mistake.
The Virginia Marine Resources Commission voted to give 342 watermen a new license, for either 150 or 200 crab pots.
Commission members also voted to make it harder for new watermen to receive the 100-pot license in the first place. The commission indicated that it would like to eliminate the 100-pot license altogether in the future, replacing it with one that would give someone a better shot at earning a living.
”We know the 100-pot license is no good,” said Jack Travelstead, the commission’s chief of fisheries management.
In 1997, some 1,725 watermen were licensed to catch hard crabs with pots. About 975 of them were licensed to use 300 to 500 pots, but 750 watermen were limited to 100 pots. Even with Tuesday’s vote, more than 350 watermen will still hold 100-pot licenses in 1998.
The commission also tightened the requirements watermen must meet to obtain a 100-pot license for the first time. Several hundred watermen have received new 100-pot licenses since they were first issued in 1995.
The commission’s long-term goal is to eliminate the 100-pot license without increasing the overall number of crab pots in the water. Watermen were licensed to use about 400,000 hard crab pots in 1997, though more than 25 percent of those pots were never put in the water, according to the commission.
Among watermen who held the 100-pot license, 41 percent didn’t set a single crab pot in 1997.
”This just substantiates what the watermen are telling us, that the 100-pot license is virtually useless,” Travelstead said.
Commission members were split over the new licenses. Some agreed with watermen who said that replacing a 100-pot license with a 150-pot one isn’t enough.
”I personally don’t think 50 more pots is going to be much help to a waterman,” said Lake Cowart Jr. of Northumberland County.
Fifty more pots is better than nothing, but a waterman needs 200 pots to make a living, said Jeff Crockett of the Tangier branch of the Virginia Watermen’s Association.
The commission’s tinkering with crab licenses is purely aimed at helping watermen instead of crabs, Travelstead said, adding the state’s crab population appears to be stable.
* Richard Stradling can be reached at 247-7420.