OUCH!

[JohnR]

READ THIS:
.... For striped bass, the commission voted Tuesday to
immediately close the Atlantic coast to commercial
harvesting of the popular seafood and game fish, known
locally as stripers or rockfish.

According to the emergency action Tuesday, Virginia
watermen can take 98,000 pounds of stripers from the
ocean per year. So far in 2002, they have captured
about 600,000 pounds, said Jack Travelstead, state
director of saltwater fisheries.

Subject: striped bass and blue crabs

Hi fishfolk,

For the rest of the article:

http://www.pilotonline.com/news/nw0529fis.html

NEWPORT NEWS -- State regulators took key strides
Tuesday to better protect two of the most economically
important marine creatures in Virginia: the blue crab
and striped bass.

For crabs, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission
voted to expand a huge sanctuary in the middle of the
Chesapeake Bay by 286 square miles, putting waters at
least 30 feet deep off-limits to commercial fishermen
from June 1 to Sept. 15 -- the peak crabbing season.

The move, criticized by some fishermen as harmful to
their already shaky trade, is intended to give
pregnant females a better chance of reaching spawning
grounds at the bottom of the Bay near Hampton Roads.

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science has estimated
an 84 percent decline this decade in the number and
size of adult female crabs in the lower Bay. This,
among other factors, has led to serious declines in
the overall population of the Bay's most renowned
inhabitant.

For striped bass, the commission voted Tuesday to
immediately close the Atlantic coast to commercial
harvesting of the popular seafood and game fish, known
locally as stripers or rockfish.

According to the emergency action Tuesday, Virginia
watermen can take 98,000 pounds of stripers from the
ocean per year. So far in 2002, they have captured
about 600,000 pounds, said Jack Travelstead, state
director of saltwater fisheries.

In effect, the regulation closes the coast and bans
the taking or possessing of striped bass from the
ocean by commercial fishermen until at least next
season, Feb.

1, 2003. The rule does not apply to sportsmen.

The commission took the step after federal regulators
last week determined that Virginia watermen were
catching too many large, old stripers migrating toward
New England and the north Atlantic.

Last year, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries
Commission, which manages seafood species from Maine
to Florida, warned Virginia to curb its ``ocean
intercept'' practices, in which fishermen travel
offshore and catch big stripers before they can reach
the Chesapeake Bay to breed.

But for months the state marine commission declined to
take action, until Tuesday -- after the larger part of
this year's commercial striper season had passed.

Recreational anglers and environmentalists have
highlighted the case in urging Gov. Mark R. Warner to
press for a greater conservation ethic among appointed
officials who will regulate coastal fisheries.

In adopting a larger crab sanctuary, expanding the
existing one from 661 square miles to 947 square
miles, Virginia believes it has complied with a
conservation pact with Maryland and the Potomac River
Fisheries Commission. The neighbors pledged to cut Bay
harvests by 15 percent by the end of 2003.

Reach Scott Harper at 446-2340 or
sharper@pilotonline.com