The following story is from the newsletter of the Richmond Audubon Society, submitted March 24, 1999:

VMRC Rejects Staff and Scientists' Recommendations for Horseshoe Crab Protection
By Eileen Rowan, RAS Environmental Scientist

Rejecting recommendations to reduce horseshoe crab landings by its own staff, science advisors, and citizen panel, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) unanimously voted on March 23 to increase landings. The approved quota of 710,000 crabs was the specific request of a single conch export company. (The crabs are used as bait in Virginia for conch and eel, which are in turn sold to Asia as a seafood delicacy). Also disregarded were recommendations from several federally-convened panel reports, and from the Virginia conservation and medical communities.

Horseshoe crabs and their eggs are important food for migratory shorebirds, federally-listed loggerhead turtles, blue crabs, sharks, and several other aquatic species. Several Virginia coastal scientists are reporting observations of declining numbers of horseshoe crabs in Virginia waters. Evidence of localized declines in other states led New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware to reduce their 1998 landings significantly over 1997 levels. The VMRC, however, permitted Virginia landings to increase from 26,000 to more than 540,000 crabs in that same year.

Reductions from 50 to 90 percent had been recommended by VMRC staff, VIMS advisors, and a VMRC-commissioned citizen advisory panel which included watermen. But at the meeting a representative from Chesapeake Bay Packing Co., the largest U.S. conch exporter, suggested for the first time a quota of 710,000 crabs. A motion to use this number was quickly made by a commission member-- also a fish packing company owner-- which the board unanimously passed. This is an increase of more than 2600% [that's no typo] over 1997 landings. There was no board debate; the few board comments were typified by that of another member: "Why can't we do a quota based on demand rather than supply?" to which the VMRC chair and agency director William Pruitt agreed

Where other fisheries have other conservation champions, bird conservation groups have taken the lead for horseshoe crabs. Thus, the VMRC citizen panel, whose report was read at the meeting, included Eileen Rowan of RAS, Bill Portlock of VSO, and Jim Rahman of Virginia Beach Audubon, along with biomedical and commercial fishing representatives. Our panel recommended a cap of 50,000 crabs, with the minority indicating they would accept a quota of 260,000 crabs. Panel recommendations passed unanimously included 1) a spawning season closure of the conch dredge "deliberate bycatch" of horseshoe crabs (as Virginia's governor had already committed under the Chesapeake Bay Program in 1994 but never implemented), and 2) to protect horseshoe crab habitat by actively obtaining state resources necessary to meet largely ignored federal guidelines and previously unmet 1994 Chesapeake Bay Program commitments. These latter measures will be the subject of a public hearing next month on April 27 at VMRC in Newport News.

Virginia law requires that fishery management plans and regulations be based upon the best scientific, economic, biological and sociological information available, not discriminate among user groups, and not have economic allocation as their sole purpose.

Thus, RAS believes that comments at this time are best directed to The Honorable James S. Gilmore, III, Governor of Virginia, State Capitol, Richmond, VA 23219.

For more information, contact Perry Plumart.