Comments on: Crab comeback?

By: Earth Day - more than just the environment | Bearing Drift :: Virginia Politics and Podcasts

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:42:03 +0000

[...] last week, you’ll remember Gov. Tim Kaine lauding the fact that the blue crab was on the rebound – nearly doubling in size to close to 4 million in population this year. The problem is that in [...]

By: Loudoun Insider

Loudoun Insider — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 01:13:37 +0000

Being conservative at one time meant being for conservation. Not anymore. The GOP has been bastardized by the unlimited resource extraction folks. They want to get theirs now – to hell with future generations. That’s liberal, folks, not conservative.

By: LittleDavid

LittleDavid — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 20:08:38 +0000

Great comment Loudon Insider.

And to quote Ken Smith:

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you don’t take the crabs out of the water then there will be more in the water.”

It also doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you allow unlimited catches, and these unlimited catches result in depleting the population to unsustainable levels, we all lose.

By: Loudoun Insider

Loudoun Insider — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 19:56:12 +0000

I’m sure the halt of winter dredging in Virginia helped.

By: JR Hoeft

JR Hoeft — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 20:40:05 +0000

Great comment, Ken!

By: Ken Smith

Ken Smith — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 20:27:23 +0000

The watermen predicted in the fall of 2007 that the abundance of crabs was going to increase. In the spring of 2008 the watermen saw more evidence of this increase however Kaine grandstands and scapegoats the watermen and makes them reduce the effort they can put on the fishery by 37%.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you don’t take the crabs out of the water then there will be more in the water.
There would have been without the reduction in effort. In North Carolina the crabbers had a 50% increase. in 2007 their catch was 20 million pounds and in 2008 their catch was 31 million pounds. Did Kaine and VMRC orchestrate this too?
Hell no. Kaine puts the Virginia crabber out of work and allows the North Carolina crabber to take the Virginia crabber’s market.
Hey! It makes good press and by scapegoating the waterman the governor and VMRC can continue to avoid the real issue and that is the degradation of the Chesapeake Bay.

By: PWConservative

PWConservative — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 17:27:52 +0000

I always knew that it would be the democrats that would cause a resurgence of crabs.

Seriously though, This surprises me, Given the sorry quality of the water in rivers like the Shenandoah, Bullpasture, Bull Run which have suffered some bad fish kills as of late.

By: Shaun Kenney

Shaun Kenney — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:39:49 +0000

Not bad, considering the Chesapeake Bay Foundation says things aren’t getting any better. Crabs seem to think otherwise — or is there more to it than this?