Maryland Should Ban Crabbing and Support Watermen, Crab Industry Workers
I’ll readily admit that I don’t know every detail of the “negotiations” happening between Maryland government and the commercial watermen who depend on the Chesapeake Bay for their livelihood. But having lived in Maryland for over 30 years and witnessed firsthand the continued decline of the Bay and its once-abundant wildlife, you don’t have to have too many details to understand the fundamental issues facing the bay.
The Chesapeake is dying (some might argue it’s already dead) because of unchecked industrial and residential growth along its shores and tributaries. Another contributing factor is the largely unchecked commercial and recreational fishing/crabbing industry that draws whatever harvests it possibly can from the Bay year after year.
The political machine that governs this state (and nearly every other) is unable and unwilling to control industrial and residential growth in any significant way. There is too much money involved and politicians are never going to side with the long-term health of natural resources over an immediate cash influx from backing a new industrial complex or residential community. It’s just not going to happen in our current system of government. All the Bay has going for it on this side of the equation is a slow movement toward better standards in building, agricultural/farm run-off management and waste water strategies. But rest assured that things are still getting worse on this front, just not quite as quickly as they once were.
On the other side of the equation, we have the watermen — both commercial and residential — who introduce minimal pollutants into the Bay, but pull out its crabs, oysters and fish to the extent that populations of each are in precipitous decline and stand at historic lows. The watermen of the Chesapeake have a long history. They were fishing the Bay long before there were chemical factories and sewage treatment plants pumping poisons and pollutants into once-pristine waters. They have a vested interest in the environmental health of the Bay and surrounding areas. They are largely sympathetic figures in the eyes the “public” because they earn an “honest living” by working long, hard hours under difficult conditions. This sympathetic image has helped to protect their rights to continue to harvest dying populations of wildlife, even in the face clear evidence that these harvests should be dramatically limited or banned entirely.
Whether or not banning crabbing and oyster harvesting in the Bay would solve the problem is not worth arguing. It most likely would not bring levels of either one back in great numbers – at least at first. But there can be no arguing that instituting a 3- or 5-year ban on crabbing and oystering in the Bay would certainly not hurt the current situation. At this point, it’s worth a shot to try to give the ecosystem a chance to regain a foothold after literally centuries of pillaging by the commercial fishing industry. 5 years to let the crabs and oysters try to figure out ways to adapt to the continued flow of pollutants and pesticides and fertilizers that threaten their existence on a daily basis. 5 years to let populations enjoy natural, unimpeded cycles of reproduction, life and death. Predators and prey alike would benefit and the Bay itself would have a chance to begin to replenish itself. Maybe it wouldn’t help, but it certainly couldn’t hurt.
As for the watermen and the crab/oyster industry workers who would be negatively impacted by a ban, I think the Maryland state government (with perhaps a little federal cash thrown in) could easily absorb the cost of paying off these people and companies for the duration of any proposed ban. My overly simplistic approach would be something like this:
- Pay every waterman the average of their taxable income from commercial crabbing/oystering for the last 5 years, plus 10%. Of course, documented tax returns would be required in order to receive payments. Payments would be for the first 3 years of any proposed ban. Basically an incredibly generous severance package in exchange for our pleasant memories of honest watermen working the Bay back in the glory days.
- Watermen should also be given the inside track to apply for the multitude of new DNR positions that would be required to enforce the new ban and to track the impact of the ban on the populations of crabs and oysters. They could still be working on the water and perhaps gaining a new appreciation for the fragility of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem.
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Provide crab/oyster processing companies and specific laid-off employees with similar pay-offs for the crab/oyster product that was lost from the Maryland harvest for 3 years.
Maybe this approach would prove unsuccessful in the long run, but it certainly couldn’t hurt to try.
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One need look no further than the ban on Rockfish (that’s “Stripers” or “Striped Bass” to all you non-Marylanders) to see how well such a program can work. The 1990s saw a ban on Rockfish similar to that being proposed for crabs and oysters because, frankly, the stripers were nearly nonexistent in the Chesapeake after being overfished. The problem was dire. Now that the ban has run its course and has been lifted, Rockfish are fairly plentiful in the Bay. I’ve actually fished for them since the ban was lifted (catch and release) and can saw firsthand that the comeback was real. I think the Rockfish ban went through more easily because there is less commercial interest in them than with crabs and oysters, but there was still a fight to get the ban in place and anyone who now argues that it wasn’t an overall positive move is simply ignoring facts intentionally.