THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 27, 1995 TAG: 9509270433
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
Despite objections from scientists, Virginia eased its Chesapeake Bay-wide ban on oystering Tuesday, opening parts of the Rappahannock River where some of the last big spawning oysters can be found.
By a 5-2 vote, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission bucked its director of oyster restoration and moved to allow a limited commercial oyster season on three public grounds in the Rappahannock, from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31.
The move was largely a concession to grieving watermen, who made emotional pleas Tuesday for a chance to catch oysters, even just a few bushels, this winter.
``I've got nothing else to do,'' shrugged oysterman Andy Brooks. ``Let me work. I want to work.''
State restoration director Jim Wesson had asked the commission to leave the Bay and all its Virginia tributaries, including the Rappahannock, closed for a second consecutive year to give oysters another chance at reproducing.
Oyster stocks in the Bay have plummeted to historic lows in Virginia and Maryland the past decade, because of a devastating combination of disease, pollution and overfishing.
But the Virginia closure bore few youngsters this spring, surveys showed. And watermen complained that the ban kept them from harvesting an abundant oyster bar in the James River that eventually was destroyed by a wave of disease known as MSX.
Commission member Gordon Burkett, a marina owner, did not want to see history repeat itself this season in the Rappahannock.
``These oysters are going to die anyway, so why not let someone get a benefit from them,'' Burkett said, noting that watermen can probably capture several hundred bushels in time for the lucrative Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.
The vote was one of several Tuesday in setting the 1995-96 oyster season. Restrictions in place last year on the James River, the most prolific waterway for baby oysters, will remain the same.
Oystermen can harvest the James from Oct. 1 through April 30, and can take no more than 80,000 bushels of newborns, or seed, which are mostly sold to private oyster farmers who raise them to market size in protected beds.
The main stem of the Bay will remain closed to all public oystering for a second straight year, the commission unanimously voted.
On the Eastern Shore, the only change this year is that oystermen will not be allowed to harvest seed oysters. Officials hope that youngsters growing in coastal mud flats will reach the legal minimum size of 3 inches by next year's market season.
In making his recommendations for continued restrictions, Wesson said Virginia has suffered one of its worst years on record. Reproduction was looking good in the James until floods this spring washed a torrent of freshwater, nutrients and silt on top of oyster reefs, destroying many.
Then the summer's drought increased salinity to near-record highs, sparking a feverish outbreak of MSX and Dermo, the two diseases fatal to oysters but harmless to human consumers, which wiped out the remaining bars.
Nonetheless, Wesson said a few hardy oysters in the upper Rappahannock have survived the turmoil. He called these scattered die-hards the ``only big living oysters we have left capable of spawning any meaningful comeback.''
Despite such dire forecasts, the commission considered opening all tributaries to limited seasons, including the Rappahannock, based on the assumption that if watermen do not churn up river bottoms in search of oysters, they will not reproduce.
``Oyster grounds are like a farm,'' said oysterman Donnie Smith. ``If you don't turn your land, you won't produce.''
That measure was defeated by a 4-3 vote.
The Rappahannock vote effectively opens 10 miles of water to oystering, encompassing three public bars known as Long Rock, Moraticco and Bowlers Ridge.
KEYWORDS: OYSTERS by CNB