A Virginia Marine Resources Commission committee has recommended that the state agency not open a crab dredge fishery this winter in Virginia waters.
At its Aug. 20 meeting, the Crab Management Advisory Committee voted by 8-5 (with two members absent) to make that recommendation to VMRC commissioners. The meeting was recorded and is available for viewing at youtube.com/watch?v=vjnMlolJ3Ec.
The committee had been tasked with coming up with regulatory measures such as quotas, the number of licenses, who would be eligible, and what gear restrictions might be imposed in order to implement a crab dredge season should the commission decide to have one this winter.
Instead, faced with the idea that a dredge season could require equivalency reductions in crab potting in order to maintain the integrity of the multi-state agreement that saw closure of the crab dredge fishery in 2008, the committee focused on encouraging a longer crab pot fishery that would begin on March 1 and go through Dec. 31...