Chesapeake Bay crab numbers jump after winter dredge survey
Published onThe annual winter Chesapeake Bay crab dredge survey shows an estimated 96 million increase in the blue crab population from 227 million in 2022 to 323 million blue crabs in the Bay in 2023. The results are from the recently released 2023 Winter Crab Dredge Survey, which has Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) officials and others encouraged. The good news comes on the heels of a horrid 2022 survey that showed the worst (227 million) estimated population numbers in the 34 years that the survey has been conducted. The last all-time high of 852 million crabs was reported in 1993. The low survey numbers last year led VMRC and Marylands Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to place restrictions on crabbers cutting down the days they can work and on catch limits. Early signs of population improvement are being reported this spring from crabbers who work using 450-crab pot ...
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S.C. crabbers, state agency pushing for crabbing regulations
Published onFOLLY BEACH S.C. (WCBD)- Crab populations along the Lowcountrys coast, in places like the Charleston Harbor, are declining according to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR). Multiple surveys from around the Charleston area have shown a decline. Read more
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Recipes for the Boat: Soft Spring Rolls with Crab
Published onAs a commercial fisherman, fishing for salmon out of Ketchikan, Alaska with my husband Ole, I've had plenty of experience cooking up scrumptious meals on a small fishing boat. One of my favorite dishes to make is Soft Spring Rolls with Crab. Not only are they delicious, but they're also easy to make in a compact galley. To start, you'll need some fresh crab meat, rice paper wrappers and your choice of fillings. I like to use avocado, shredded carrots, red cabbage and cilantro, but you can use whatever you have on hand. Simply lay out a wrapper, add your fillings and roll it up tightly. One tip for making spring rolls in a tight space is to have all of your ingredients prepped and ready to go before you start rolling. This will make the process much smoother and less cluttered. Another tip is to use ...
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Virginia waterman needs his classic wooden boats ‘just to keep up with the work.’
Published onCrown Pointe Marina in Hayes, Va., is located in the heart of Guinea Neck in Gloucester County where there is a historically dedicated pocket of commercial fishing. Crown Pointe caters to recreational folks, but also provides space on the yard for maintenance and upkeep of commercial fishing boats. Peyton Mason, 27, has his 36 x 11 x 2.4 wooden workboat Emilie Virginia up on the hard, where he is installing bottom planks and a new stern and pilothouse. Mason owns Virginia Oyster Co. at Hayes and has been a commercial fisherman since he was 21 years old. He uses the Emilie Virginia in the states oyster and crab pot fisheries. The Emilie Virginia was built in 1983 by the late Bobby Crockett of Tangier Island. Crockett spent most of his working life as a waterman but found he had a knack for working on wooden boats. So, in the ...
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Slayer Skiffs: Multi-role boats for Gulf fishermen
Published onSlayer Skiffs are hard to find on the used boat market. Its a tool, says Slayer Skiff builder Mike Vernese. Why would anyone get rid of a tool that works? Vernese has been building the Slayer Skiff in his Perry, Florida, shop since 2012, when he made a swap for the mold with Mark Moore of Port Saint Joe. Says Vernese, He (Moore) said, You build me a couple of shrimp boats and dont kill me on the price, you can have the mold. Vernese had a bit of a shock when the mold arrived at his shop. It was in bad shape, he says. It was made of woven roving - you never want to use woven roving on a mold - and it was thin and floppy. I called him up and told him, this mold is a mess. I can make your boats but they aint going to be ...
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What It Really Takes To Preserve Fishing History with Blacks of the Chesapeake
Published onFor over forty years, Admiral Vince Leggett toed the line of waterman, career educator, and founder of the Blacks of the Chesapeake, a foundation to preserve African American and Black culture on a stretch of the Mid-Atlantic shores. Whats fascinating is how Leggett formulated solutions and connections to uplift all parties while staying true to the mission at hand. The following is a raw conversationwith a true Marylander about becoming a legacy leader in the fishing industry, the inner challenges that arise whena passion project transforms into a pillar of history, and ajourneyto preservea past while building a future. (*edited for length) What It Really Takes To Preserve Fishing History with Admiral Vince Leggett of Blacks of the Chesapeake: MW: Id love to hear updates since your talk with Captain Lamont Wright and Imani Black of Minorities of Aquaculture. You mentioned working on a collaboration with the American fishery ...
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Redefining 'Minority' with Imani Black of Minorities in Aquaculture
Published onIn just two years of founding Minorities in Aquaculture, Imani Black has amassed over $52,000 for programs, formed a women-led board of directors, and gained one hundred twenty members and counting. On a recent call during her lunch break, we chatted about MIA's growth since our first interview in the fall of 2020. "It's really kind of settling into what MIA is about," Black says. "I think the more I learn, the more I see where MIA can fill roles (in aquaculture). It's shaping to be something I didn't even know it could be." The hustle is real but pays off by inspiring minorities into water careers worldwide. "I think the beauty about our members is that they're from all over, on different journeys, and in different parts of their careers," Black said. "The common thread is that they've been wanting and ...
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Fish Wife Hack: Upcycle Old Buoys Into Jack-O-Lanterns for Halloween
Published onDIY: Upcycle Fishing Buoys into Halloween Decor A member of our partners in the commercial fisherman community shared a jack-o-lantern she made from an old buoy, and I love this idea for several reasons: It gives new life to old buoys hanging around the yard. Halloween buoys add a playful twist to the holiday, whether you make many or just one! You can turn them into ghosts, Frankenstein, or vampires. Heck, draw a spider web...or even turn one into a spider by adding long legs somehow maybe with old line! Kids will love it. We don't have children, but our nephews would LOVE this project! You can caption your social posts like, "A boo-uy to get you in the Halloween spirit!" Pun and run with it. Since buoys don't rot like traditional pumpkins, you can store your boo-uy for next year. Time and ...
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Oystering in Spandex: New launch is a better fit for Chesapeake waterman
Published onJ.C. Kinnamon of Tilghman, Md., delivered a new 40-foot fiberglass-over-wood deadrise workboat named Spandex to waterman Ernie George of White Stone, Va., in November. This is the third new boat Kinnamon has built for George. He has two of my boats working now, says Kinnamon. Ernie has one of my 36-footers for crabbing, and he is using the new one to oyster. The fall crab and oyster seasons overlap in Virginia, and Ernie uses two boats one rigged for each fishery to take full advantage of that overlap. George, 65, says this is correct but that he built the new larger boat to allow himself to downsize some as he gets older. He says he plans to sell the smaller 36-foot deadrise and use his new boat as his only boat in Virginias oyster, blue crab and gillnet fisheries. This boat is more comfortable ...
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Biden administration to add 20,000 H-2B visas, helping blue crab processors
Published onCiting a combination of record job growth and depressed workforce participation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor Jan. 27 announced an increase in H-2B visas for the first half of the current fiscal year. The move means 20,000 more visas for nonimmigrant temporary workers in nonagricultural settings, such as seafood processing, will be available through the end of March. As the International Legal and Business Services Group explained in a statement, when the work permits become available on Friday, 28 January, it will serve as the first time the program expands its allotment for the first half of the fiscal year. To qualify for an H-2B visa, employers must first provide certification from the DOL that there are no available U.S. workers who are able, willing, qualified, and available to fill the role, the Schaumburg, Illinois-based law firm said ...
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Virginia deadrise overhaul slowed by supply chain, leaves room for a repower
Published onChesapeake Bays Bonnie M goes out for blue crab, conch and oyster Cockrells Marine Railway in Northumberland County, Va., has the Bonnie M, a 45-foot fiberglass deadrise commercial fishing boat, in the boatshop building and the 42-foot skipjack Claud W. Somers up on the rails for repair. Don Miles of Jamesville, Va., on Virginias Eastern Shore had his Hulls Unlimited-East fiberglass deadrise at the yard in October to have the exhaust system converted from dry to wet and to have new pilothouse windows installed. Shop manager Brian Dyke says 6-inch Vernatube Wet Exhaust Tubing was used for the new wet-exhaust system from the engine to forward of the stern. The old dry-exhaust piping was also removed. Eight-inch Vernatube Wet Exhaust Tubing was installed in the stern of the 45-foot commercial fishing boat Bonnie M by Cockrells Marine Railway. Larry Chowning photo The ...
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Gulf & South Atlantic Yearbook Market Report: Snapper, grouper and crabs are surprise successes
Published onRed Snapper Red snapper are more than plentiful in the Gulf of Mexico, but prices are staying strong as a result of high consumer demand and a let-up in the covid-19 restrictions that slowed sales to restaurants early in 2020. Fishermen are able to catch their quota with no difficulty, and boat prices are hovering in the $5 to $6 per pound range, with fishermen who are leasing quota netting about $2 per pound. In the South Atlantic, where red snapper are managed separately, populations are similarly abundant, according to some fish house operators. But the commercial fishery was only open from mid-July through early September, when NMFS determined fishermen had fulfilled their quota. Opening dates for 2021 have not been announced. South Atlantic fishermen are able to meet some consumer demand with vermilion snapper a smaller but tasty species that garner between $2.75 and $4 ...
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N.C. blue crab: Catches down, but prices surprisingly good
Published onNorth Carolinas blue crab season was a bit different this year with lower catches and higher prices. But in the end, it turned out to be a good year for the fishery. It was definitely a good year, says Jeff Styron of Garland Fulcher Seafood in Oriental, N.C. The stock was down but the prices were higher. The retail market did very well, likely because folks stayed home more, says Styron. That said, the restaurants really took a hit this year. Really a mixed bag. Daniel Zapf, a fisheries biologist with the state Division of Marine Fisheries, agrees. My sense is that most crabbers would consider this season to be pretty good. It seemed like landings might not have been high. But according to dealers, weve heard from prices have been good recently, says Zapf. The statistics confirm the drop in catches. The 2020 Commercial Landings Bulletin (January-June ...
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Maryland Watermen’s Association and partners sue EPA over bay cleanup
Published onThe Maryland Watermens Association and Chesapeake Bay Foundation launched a lawsuit to compel the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency into enforce Chesapeake Bay cleanup standards against upstream states. The two groups were joined by Anne Arundel County, Md., elected officials and Virginia livestock farmers Robert Whitescarver and Jeanne Hoffman in filing the lawsuit Sept. 10 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Meanwhile attorneys general for Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, and the District of Columbia are filing a similar action in the same court. The lawsuits seek to have the EPA force Pennsylvania and New York State to meet nutrient pollution reduction goals, set out in a 2010 plan and affirmed in a 2014 compact among the EPA and the states. Excessive nutrients act like fertilizer in bay waters, fueling algae growth and driving the Chesapeake Bays recurring water quality problems. There is a 2025 target date ...
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Mislabeled: Seafood executive speaks out on federal charges
Published onAfter pleading guilty to federal charges that his seafood company knowingly mislabeled foreign crabmeat as a U.S. product, Jeffrey Styron is speaking out about the inaccuracies of the charges. I made a mistake, and Ive admitted it, says Styron. Im not making excuses, but the situation does need clarification. The charges filed against Styron, treasurer of the corporate board of officers for Garland Fulcher, state that he substituted foreign crabmeat for domestic as early as Jan. 1, 2014, and continued through Dec. 31, 2017. According to Styron, that is simply not true. This was a one-time mistake, not a long-term venture as suggested by federal authorities, Styron says. I should pay the price for what I did, but not for what didnt happen. Styronclarifies that the "timeline and the scope of the offense claimed by federal officials is far from accurate. We found ourselves unable to fulfill ...
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Who we are: Jeremy and Jason Muermann
Published onThe seafood industrys coronavirus crisis hit early in New Jersey, and Jeremy Muermann was making new calculations even before the crabs started moving around in Barnegat Bay. My motto for this whole thing has been just keep it small, said Muermann, 42, who with his brother Jason, 38, works the bay with a 35-foot Chesapeake-built Evans. They stopped the winter dredge season two weeks early and talked with buyers to carefully gauge how the uncertain spring might pan out. With supply chains from other Mid-Atlantic states stalled out, local demand was still surprisingly good. But supply disruptions worked the other way too, and menhaden for bait could be suddenly hard to locate. Jeremy Muermann of Lanoka Harbor, N.J., fishes for blue crabs on Barnegat Bay with his brother Jason. Jeremy Muermann photo. For the spring the market has been decent, Muermann said in May, when the ...
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