THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 29, 1995 TAG: 9510290050
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
A report criticizing state management of prized but dwindling Chesapeake Bay blue crabs has been kept under wraps for months by the Allen administration.
Becky Norton Dunlop, state secretary of natural resources, requested the report last year from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, a taxpayer-supported branch of the College of William and Mary.
But the report got little attention upon delivery this spring, or about the time warning signs were surfacing that crabs might be in trouble in the Bay.
As a matter of protocol with most research requested by the administration, the report was stamped as a ``governor's working paper'' by VIMS, effectively shielding it from public view or access, state and institute officials said.
The report has not been seen or discussed since then - until Friday, when officials released a copy following media inquiries about its existence.
While mostly a primer on crab regulations, the report finds that Virginia for years has managed one of its most valuable seafood sources without long-term goals or clear objectives.
``There appears to be . . . an urgent need to better manage and regulate the resource and the fishery,'' concludes associate professor James Kirkley, who authored the 15-page report along with two colleagues.
An agriculture and resource economist, Kirkley also explores the possibility of privatizing commercial crabbing in Virginia - an idea Dunlop is interested in examining.
But the concept, which certainly would cause considerable opposition from watermen, is largely rejected in the report as being too explosive and too difficult to implement with such a large and complex fishery as crabbing.
The report also instructs the administration of Gov. George Allen that the easiest way to restore crab stocks would be simply to declare a moratorium - although Kirkley quickly distances himself from this option as too extreme.
In an interview, Kirkley said he was surprised the report had been declared off-limits and confidential, speculating that the administration didn't want some of his pointed observations made public.
``It struck a lot of people around here as odd'' that the report never surfaced in public after completion, Kirkley said. ``There were some things in there that could have made some people angry.''
Jack Travelstead, director of fisheries for the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, also saw the report for the first time Friday. He agreed that Virginia has not adopted long-term goals for crabs, mostly because there was no need until now.
``Remember that this has been one of our most successful fisheries for decades, with plenty of the resource for everyone,'' Travelstead said. ``We didn't need to think about stating any type of economic goal or objective.''
But with Virginia this year experiencing its worst hard crab harvest since 1959, and with estimates showing crab stocks as highly stressed, Virginia officials currently are reviewing such long-term management plans, he said.
``I didn't see anything, really, in there that we're not looking at now,'' Travelstead said.
Dunlop said late Friday that she read the report, took mental notes and never intended to keep it from the public domain.
``Virtually anything requested by the governor's office is declared a working paper'' and is therefore classified, she said. ``This is not a document that we're trying to keep from the public.''
Deputy secretary Tom Hopkins said stamping a document as a ``governor's working paper'' is intended to let state officials write their views freely ``without fearing that they'll be blasted all over the airwaves.''
``We have all kinds of papers and research in this office that we don't share with agencies,'' Hopkins said. ``There's really nothing secretive or mysterious here. This is how government operates.''
The Allen administration has increasingly used this stamp since coming to power in 1993, lawyers and open-records experts said. In one case, they said, the administration declared a basic organizational flow chart as privileged information.
``Let's just say this administration has vastly expanded the use of this innovation,'' said John Edwards, editor of The Smithfield Times and past chairman of the Virginia Press Association's freedom of information committee.
``We're seeing Cabinet secretaries declaring many of their memos and reports confidential,'' Edwards added. ``If taken to its extreme, I imagine you could exempt just about everything in state government.''
Hopkins disagreed that policy had changed under the Allen administration. ``This has been utilized for years,'' he said.
KEYWORDS: CRABBING INDUSTRY by CNB