Reporting from Newburg, Md.?
Six days a week, in all kinds of weather, except lightning and high winds, waterman Billy Rice and his wife, Melinda, spend their mornings pulling crab pots from the Potomac River. Crabbing has been this way for decades.But watermen across Chesapeake Bay are starting to acknowledge that things need to change if their traditional livelihood is to survive. And this fiercely independent bunch is trying to band together to control their destiny.
They've been meeting in recent months to develop proposals for improving their future, taking aim at some state regulations and policies. But the gatherings have been punctuated at times by testy exchanges among the watermen themselves, and some are boycotting the talks.
The catch this summer has been good, but long-term prospects remain uncertain for those who make a living from the bay. Oysters, once the most bountiful product of Chesapeake Bay, are a fraction of their former abundance, forcing watermen to rely more on crabbing to carry them through the year. But they're squeezed by rising costs and a market flooded with cheap, imported crabmeat.
"If something happens to crabbing in the Chesapeake Bay, our seafood industry is gone, because that's keeping us going right now," said Rice, 55, who's been working on the water since he was 10.
So for the last six months, he and more than two dozen other watermen who call themselves the Blue Crab Design Team have regularly argued into the night about how to craft a more secure future.
"We're trying to make it so we have a fishery in 10 years," said Larry Simns, president of the Maryland Watermen's Assn.
One aim, he said, is to "get rid of a bunch of little nitpicky laws" that cramp crabbers' ability to earn a living, without allowing overfishing of the bay's iconic crustacean.
Among the rules that irk crabber Richard Young is the one forcing him to stop crabbing 7 1/2 hours after sunrise ? about 1:30 p.m. this time of year ? even if engine trouble or bad weather delays his start time.
Relations between watermen and fisheries regulators have been tense, even acrimonious, for years. But state officials sitting in on the talks say they'll consider the watermen's proposals, as long as they don't jeopardize the crab population or the equilibrium of the bay ? and are agreed on by all the watermen.
Poaching scandals have recently afflicted the oystering and rockfishing industries. Crabbing has not been affected, but watermen acknowledge they have been exaggerating their crab catch reports for years. They say they feared the state would limit or even cut them off based on the reports.
But as a result, regulators have been unsure exactly how many crabs are being caught, so they limit the overall catch more than necessary to maintain an adequate crab population.
Regulators also worry that too many people are permitted to catch and sell crabs, posing a threat to the sustainability of the crab stock.
Besides nettlesome rules, watermen also are frustrated because the price they receive for their catch drops every summer just as crabs become plentiful, while the price paid by consumers stays high. As dockside prices drop, watermen say they're driven to catch more and smaller crabs just to maintain their income.
Rice said Potomac River crabbers broke the downward spiral by agreeing a few years ago to catch only bigger crabs.
On a recent day, Rice and his wife tossed back half or more of the catch, even though the crabs were good-sized. They rejected crabs with shells that buckled under Melinda Rice's thumb ? a sign they had recently molted and hadn't grown to fill out their shells.
While others might be tempted to slip such "light" crabs into a bushel basket, she said the feedback from wholesalers when consumers complain isn't worth it. In a couple more weeks, she noted, they'll be meaty again and a quality catch.
Billy Rice and others see that as an example of how watermen might find ways to improve their income over time without hurting the resource.
"It's not how many crabs you catch," Rice said. "It's how much you make. Watermen ? are people, and people don't like change. But change is inevitable."
tim.wheeler@baltsun.com
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