THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, December 19, 1995 TAG: 9512190008
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A18 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 34 lines
How will Gov. George F. Allen be remembered by many Virginians?
I think he will be remembered as the governor who gave away their crabs.
All Virginians - from Pulaski to Fairfax, Great Bridge to Accomac - own our very special resource: the blue crab.
Some Virginians think that it is their God-given right to catch the last blue crab. The Virginia Marine Resource Commission apparently agrees. The conservation measures that it proposes are a joke! VMRC scientists have warned that the blue crab is at a 36-year low. If we are not going to take the scientists' advice, they should be fired and our taxes cut.
Oysters are gone (Mr. Allen allowed the last legal-sized ones in the Rappahannock to be taken this fall). The shad are gone. The eel grass is only 10 percent of what it was. All of our shellfish and fin fish are near the point of no return.
Is this what Governor Allen wants to be remembered for?
I voted for him in the hope and expectation that he (and I) would make Virginia a better place to live. Will the Chesapeake and seaside waters become a desert? We don't have much time left. If Governor Allen will help, my grandchildren will thank him.
GRAYSON ROGERS
Nassawadox, Nov. 29, 1995 by CNB