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... A SEA GRANT ADVISORY SERVICE

Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Gloucester Point, Virginia 23062

Several crustaceans are high on thelist of preferred food items. In theUnited States the list includes thepink, white and brown shrimp, Americanand spiny lobsters, Alaskan king crab,Dungeness crabs and blue crabs. Theannual catch of each is valued in ex-cess of $5 million.

Institute of Marine Science. Pandalidshrimp, other South Atlantic and Gulfshrimp, stone crab, rock crab, jonahcrab, red crab and snow crab are listedin this category.

Speaking at Fish Expo 1974 held re-cently in Norfolk, Van Engel definedan underuti1ized species as "a speciesthat lacks one or more desirable quali-ties necessary for successful market-ing.

To be successfully marketed, ananimal has to have such qualities aslarge and steady (predictable) abun-dance;

availability to fishing gear;ease of handling, processing and mar-keting after capture; and consumeracceptance. II

Numerous other crustaceans, eachwith an annual catch value in excessof $100 thousand, are of secondaryimportance and may b~ considered as"underuti1ized" species, according toW.

A. Van Engel, head of the Depart-ment of Crustaceo1ogy at the Virginia

Van Engel pointed out that in sev-eral instances, species are underuti-lized solely because of the lack ofadequate fishing gear, inadequate pro-cessing technology or a combinationof both.

I VIMS Hosts Conference I

On Bay Management PlanCitizen's Program for the Chesapeake

Bay (CPCB), a group of citizens andorganizations from Virginia and Mary-land dedicated to developing a balanced,comprehensive management plan for theBay, held their second annual meetingJanuary 6 and 7 in Newport News.

"Some of the crustaceans found inthe Chesapeake Bay and the adjacenteontinental shelf, slope and canyonsfit my definition of underutilizedspecies and I think they could standadded exploitation," Van Engel said.

The conference, hosted by the Vir-ginia Institute of Marine Science,focused on the strengths and weaknessesof a Bay-wide River Basin Commissionand the compatibility of such a com-mission with existing state CoastalZone Management efforts.

The oceanic region between Cape Cod,Massachusetts and Cape Hatteras, NorthCarolina is known as the Mid-AtlanticBight or the Virginian Sea. Withinthis region, the section between CapeHenlopen, Delaware and Cape Hatterasis called the Chesapeake Bight, approxi-mately 171 nautical miles in length.

Continued on page 2

According to Ron Schmied, VIMS' ad-visory specialist in Coastal Zone Man-agement, River tlasin Commissions areusually created in an effort to more

Continued on page 8

January/February 1975Vol. VII, No. I

Page 2 Vol, VII, No

"For convenience in discussion; wedesignate the continental shelf as thatsection from the shoreline to the 100fathom curve," said Van Engel. "Thecontinental slope begins at the 100fathom contour. The edge of the shelfis about 71 nautical miles to the eastof Ocean City, Maryland, about 65 nau-tical miles east of Chesapeake Bay andabout 25 nautical miles east of CapeHatteras. "

qu[nquedens).

Within Chesapeake Bay there areapproximately 28 species of crabs,shrimp and shrimp-like animals. Aboutnine species attain a large size, butonly two, the blue crab (Callinectessapidus) and the rock crab (~irroratps), are large and abundantenough to be considered commerciallyvaluable.

Four canyons in Chesapeake Bight --Wilmington, Baltimore, Washing~on andNorfolk --cut the edge of the shelfand appear to sustain concentrationsof fishes and crustaceans.

In his presentation, Van Engel dis-cussed the potential of these fivespecies as exploitable resources:

Blue Crab--Van Engel said that approximately 90

species of crabs, shrimp and shrimp-likeanimals are presently known to existwithin the shelf, slope and canyons andoverlying waters of the Chesapeake Bight.Many rare species and only a few abun-dant ones are among this number.

The hardshelled stage of the bluecrab is heavily exploited in ChesapeakeBay.

Average annual landings of 70million pounds from the bay representabout one-half of the United Statesproduction of blue crabs, but the soft-shelled stage must be considered under-exploited, not only in the ChesapeakeBay area but also along the southeastand gulf coasts.

"Sixty percent of the species arefound between the shoreline and 10fathoms, 70 percent are within thefirst 50 fathoms and 92 percent arefound between the shore and 100 fath-oms," V an Engel said. "Many of theanimals are of small body size. Theyare important links in the food chain,transferring energy from the lower tohigher or larger animal forms."

Soft and peeler crabs constitute only3.5% of the total bay catch of crabs.Yet this surprisingly small percentagereturns 20% of the crab fisherman's in-come.

A blue crab is potentially suscepti-ble to capture as a soft or peeler crabduring the three to four molts it com-pletes during the three months prior toreaching the five-inch legal catch width.Methods of capture and of holding crabsuntil they shed are not yet good enoughto increase production. In the south-east and gulf coast states where effortis minimal, production of soft crabs isonly 10% of the United States total.

About 12 species attain a largesize, but only four are large andabundant enough to be considered com-mercially valuable. The four, eachunderuti1ized in the Chesapeake Bightregion, are the American lobster (Ho-~a~ ~~~s), the jonah crab --

Rock Crab--Large quantities of rock crabs are

present in the Chesapeake Bay from No-vember through April and are easily cap-tured by dredges. A crude estimate of

January/February 1975 Page 3

the reason is not known. In one areathe catch ranged up to 17.6 craQs perpot, with an average catch of 6.8crabs. The potential catch there wasabout 12,000 crabs for an eight-daycruise. In a second area the maximumcatch was 2.8 crabs per pot, with anaverage catch of 1.1 crabs. Unless abetter means is found to extract meatfrom these crabs, it is uneconomicalto land large quantities.

catch would be 500 to 1,000 crabs perhour dredging, or about 5,000 to 10,000pounds of rock crabs a day. Y~t no com-mercial fishery for hard rock crabsexists becaus~ of competition from themore highly prized blue crab fishery.

Since most of the rock crab meat isremoved from the relatively small legsand claws, pounds of crab meat pickedby a worker in one day is likely to befar less than can be obtained from bluecrabs.

Development of a suitable me-chanical picker is needed. American Lobster

Peelers make up about three-fourthsof the Chesapeake Bay rock crab catchin. December and early January. Crabsshed in late December and during January.Opportunity is promising for developinga winter soft rock crab industry. About750 pounds or approximately 190 dozensoft crabs were produced in the winterof 1973-74.

There is a small though active potfishery for the American lobster atthe edge of the shelf off Virginia.To date, landings vary in direct pro-portion to the number of pots and alsovary seasonally. The quality of pot-caught lobsters is high. Interesting-ly, the catch contains very few lob-sters smaller than the legal 3-3/16inch carapace length.

In other months of the year rockcrabs are scarce within the ChesapeakeBay, but are common offshore and canbe caught in seabass and lobster pots.Temperature, depth and bottom type mayaffect distribution of the rock crab.Most crabs have been caught ,on siltybottoms, at depths less than 35 fathomsand in the 46 to 57oF range.

No firm estimate of the abundanceof lobsters has been made, but it isapparent that landings of a millionpounds a year can be realized. Thechief difficulty in effecting such acatch is maintainance of large stringsof pots.

Red Crab--Jonah Crab-

The red crab resource at the edgeof the shelf, in the canyons and onthe slope off Virginia is of uncertainmagnitude. Trawl nets and pots havecaught red crabs at 150 to over 800

fathoms. Crabs apparently are moreabundant on the slope than in the can-yons.

The most productive zone foundin VIMS' investigations has been 145to 280 fathoms, deeper than where lob-sters and'jonah crabs are most abundant.The quality of the catch by pots hasbeen superior to that obtained bytrawl nets.

Closely related, but of a largersize than the rock crab, is the jonahcrab. The meat of the claws and legsis especially prized. Jonah crabs arefound offshore in deeper waters thanrock crabs and in areas where Americanlobsters are present. But because ofcompetition from the more highly valuedlobster, catches of jonah crabs areusually discarded until near the lastday of fishing when they may be retainedto augment the lobster catch. In 1973,76,000 pounds valued at over $6,000were landed.

The chief difficulties in exploitingthe red crab resource lie in maintaininga large string of pots and in establish-ing a nearby onshore processing plant.

Offshore stocks of jonah crabs aremoderately large, according to currentestimates.

Catches of crabs in lobsterpots vary with geographic area, although

Page 4 Vol. VII, No

Open hearings on the bills to extendthe exclusive fisheries zone off theUnited States coast and similar legis-lation on the subject will be held be-fore the House Subcommittee on Fisheriesand Wildlife Conservation and the Envi-ronment in March.

the U.S. coast are depleted or threat-ened with depletion primarily becauseof foreign fishing efforts.

In addition to the problems of over-fishing, the principal mechanism formanaging and conserving these fish hasbeen international agreements that havelargely failed in their purpose.The hearings have been scheduled for

the week of March 10 through March 14,beginning at 10 a.m. daily in Room 1334,Longworth House Office Bui1ding~ Wash-ington, D.C.

The bill (H.R. 200) to extend on aninterim basis the jurisdiction of theUnited States over certain ocean areasand fish is in response to the dangerto coastal and anadromous fishes becauseof overfishing. By its terms it willautomatically terminate at such time asgeneral international agreement onfishery jurisdiction is achieved and auniversal treaty on the question comesinto force or is provisionally applied.

The bill also would initiate a na-tional marine fisheries managementeffort by the creation of a FisheriesManagement Council which would prepareand adopt a national marine £isheriesplan to be approved by Congress. Theplan would essentially address thequestion of designating appropriateinstitutional arrangements for fisherymanagement.

Representatives of the Departmentsof Commerce, State, Transportation, andDefense and public witnesses will beheard during this period. Those wish-ing to be on the witness list should'write the Committee on Merchant Marineand Fisheries at the above address, orcall Mr. Everett (202/225-4047) or Ms.Wescott (202/225-6785). Those unableto attend the hearings may submit com-ments in writing to Hon. Robert L.Leggett, Chairman, Subcommittee on Fish-eries and Wildlife Conservation and theEnvironment, Room 1334, Longworth HouseOffice Building, Washington, D.C. 20515.

The hearings are a continuation ofthe hearings held in the 93rd Congresson similar bills, during which time 10days of field hearings were held, be-ginning in Portland, Maine on May 10,1974,

and ending in San Pedro, Cali-fornia on October 18, 1974. Rep~ ThomasN.

Downing of Virginia presided over thehearing held July 12,1974 in Hampton.Both Downing and Rep. William G. White-hurst favor passage of legislation re-lated to the exclusive fisheries zone.

The Council would also examine andmake recommendations on possible tech-niques for effectively regulating andmanaging marine fishes.

The Emergency Marine Fisheries Pro-tection Act is intended to provide theU.S. with fishery management .;urisdic-tion over fish within a 200 nauticalmile zone and over anadromous species offish beyond the zone in order to manageand conserve such fish.

Section 4 asserts fishery managementjurisdiction out to 200 nautical milesand over anadromous species of fishthroughout their migratory range, ex-cept to the extent such fish are foundin another nation's territorial watersor contiguous fishery zone. Specificexception is made for highly migratoryspecies such as tuna which the bill de-clares would more appropriately bemanaged by international arrangements.

If such arrangements on any stocksof highly migratory species do not exist,

Continued on page 5This .i\Jrisdiction is being asserted

because a numbey of $tocks of fish off

January/February 1975 Page 5

then U.S. jurisdiction in the ZOO-milezone would apply to such stocks as well.

The Office of Admissions at MaryWashington College in Fredericksburg,Va. is accepting applications for asix-week summer course in marine biol-ogy.

H.R. 200 would not eliminate allforeign fishing within the 200 mile con-tiguous fishery zone or the harvestingof migratory species. Instead it isthe intention of the bill to direct theDepartment of State to begin phasing outsuch treaties as the U.S. prepares it- .

self to take over the management effort.

Cross Rip Camp in De1tavi11e, Va.will be used as home base for the spe-cial course which will run from May 26through July 5, 1975. The course isa study of marine organisms with par-ticular stress on their ecology, phy-logeny and behavior. Dr. WilliamPinschmidt and Dr. Anna Hoye, both pro-fessors of biology at Mary WashingtonCollege, will teach the course.

The maximum amount of foreign fish-ing to be allowed after all treatiesare phased out is specified in Section5. After a foreign nation has provedthat it has traditional fishing rights,it is to be allowed only that portionof any particular stock which cannot beharvested by United States citizens.This essentially is the overall limitof foreign fishing to be allowed aftertreaty rights have been phased out. The classroom-laboratory-library at

Cross Rip is equipped for microscopicstudy, chemical analysis, gross dissec-tion and observation of living materialsin coordination with audio-visual tech-niques.

noats of various sizes, inclu-ding a specially equipped 22 foot Aqua-Sport, are used for both class studyand independent projects.

NOAA Offers Fellowships

To Disadvantaged StudentsStudents who wish to reserve a place

in the course should file an applica-tion with the Director of Admissions,Mary Washington College, Fredericksburg,Virginia 22401. Since enrollment islimited, early registration is advised.

A number of talented, but disadvan-taged, high school seniors will beappointed by the National Oceanic andAtmospheric Administration (NOAA) asJunior Fellows at various locationsacross the United States this year.

Students will be notified of theiracceptance within two weeks after re-ceipt of their applications. Studentsapplying after the class is filled willbe placed on a waiting list and informedof enrollment as vacancies occur.

Positions will be in the NationalWeather Service. National Ocean Survey.National Environmental Satellite Ser-vice.

Environmental Data Service. andEnvironmental Research Laboratories.

School teachers may apply creditearned towards certification renewalwith the approval of their respectivesuperintendants.

To be eligible, candidates must behigh school seniors in the top 10 per-cent of- their graduating class; accept-ed by (or an applicant to) a four-yearcollege; and in need of financial as-sistance to continue their education. College students and other inter-

ested persons may contact the Office ofAdmissions for further information.Interested students should apply to

their principal or counselor, who makenominations for the program.

Page 6 Vol. VII, No.

Although aquaculture has been pro-moted as a possible solution to theever-increasing world deficit ofprotein, current efforts are concen-trated on production of luxury foods.The aquaculture industry is expand-ing around the world, but this willcontribute very little to feedingour hungry millions, at least forthe near future.

I would like to request some infor-mation on the origin, history andthe future of sea farming.

Q.

M.W.Hampton, Virginia

For more information see:A.

Bardach, J.E., J.H. Ryther, andw.o. McLarney. 1972. Aquaculture.Wiley-Interscience, New York868 p.

Sea farming, or aquaculture, mayhave its origins as long ago asthe ancient civilizations of theNear East, but it has been estab-lished that oyster culture waspracticed in ancient Rome and Gaul.It still accounts for a small,though growing, proportion of theworld's aquatic food harvest. Mostof this farming is done in freshor brackish waters since the cul-ture of marine organisms (mari-culture) is practiced commerciallywith only a few species.

Q. As a biology teacher, I'd like toknow if you offer a marine sciencecourse that would help me in makingmarine study a part of my highschool program.

E.V.P.Tangier, Virginia

Aquaculture is broadly defined asany process in which organisms aremanipulated in at least one way be-fore harvest, but the more inten-sive operations consist of cultureunder controlled conditions usingprinciples of agriculture and ani-mal husbandry. Traditional oysterfarming in Virginia is an exampleof a low intensity method; more in-tensive techniques have recentlybeen developed in which oysters arespawned and raised in the labora-tory.

VIMS is currently planning a three-week program, "Introduction to theCoastal Zone Environment", tenative-ly scheduled to begin on July 7,1975. Further information will bepublished in the Marine ResourceInformation Bulletin.

A.

Holding Tank Deadline Extended

Board members of the State WaterControl Board voted on January 25,1975 to push back for one year theimplementation deadline for installingwaste retention systems on boats withmarine toilets.

New deadline for compliance withRegulation 5 -Control of Pollutionfrom Boats is March 7,1976.

Important species under cultivationin the United States are trout, cat-fish, goldfish, bait minnows, andvarious tropical fishes for the-aquarium trade. Carp, although notpopular in this country, probablyhas been cultured for a longer timethan any other fish. It is believedthat carp may have been raised inChina for about 4,000 years, and anaccount of spawning captive carp waswritten in 475 B.C.

M~at Quality Index

ImprovementMeat quality in the James River was

average at most stations and about thesame as the values recorded for Decem~ber. The exception was at Horse Headin the lower river where quality wasbelow average --a sharp decline overthe previous month. Quality in thelower river in 1975 was lower than itwas a year ago.

is not typical of winter conditionsand the reason is not apparent. Marinebiologists say the increase may havebeen associated with the mild winterconditions but the evidence is notconclusive.

In the Rappahannock River qualitywas above average at all stations withthe highest indices occurring at Ur-banna and Bowlers Rock. In generallevels were about the same or lowerthan they were a month ago.

In the York River quality was aver-age to above average and had increasedover the previous month. This increase

KEY TO INDEX NUMBER

4.0 TO 5.9.

6.0 TO 7.5.7.6 AND UP

-BELOW AVERAGE

-A VERAGE

ABOVE AVERAGE

November1973 1974

December1973 1974

January1974 1975JAMES RIVER

5.0 6.1 6.0 6.8 6.1

6.05.77.57.5

6.05.27.67.3

5.96.76.64.3

5.95.37.57.0

6.66.46.64.2

-

White ShoalsWreck Shoals

shallowdeep

Point of ShoalsHorse Head

YORK RIVER

6.06.96.57.1

7.48.08.0

7.17.97.68.1

- - -6.06.66.5

Green RockPages RockAberdeen RockBells Rock

RAPPAHANNOCK RIVER

10.3 10.9 10.8 11.9 11.3

10.810.4

9.812.7

-

UrbannaSmokey Point

shallowdeep

MoratticoBowlers Rock

10.210.410.110.9

9.78.39.8

10.9

10.09.1

10.512.4

9.68.09.1

10.3

Page 8 Vol. VII, No.1

Continued from page I

effectively manage water and land re-source units which extend into morethan one state's jurisdictional area.If a RBC were created to manage theChesapeake Bay, its members probablywould include representatives of Vir-ginia, Maryland, Washington D.C. andassociated federal agencies. The ini-tiative for establishing such a com-mission must come from the states.

The CPCB, organized in 1971, has nodelegated authority to develop or im-plement a management plan for theChesapeake Bay, but is working to aidand motivate those who do. In order toachieve this goal, the Citizen's Pro-gram intends to:

.

Provide a neutral forum for con-structive dialogue between allparties interested in the Bay,lIlt was generally agreed that while

a Bay-wide Commission is not particu-larly feasible at this time, it has agreat potential for future use," Schmiedsaid.

..

Conference speakers included WarrenFairchild, director of the United StatesWater Resources Council, James Douglas,commissioner of the Virginia MarineResources Commission, Cranston Morgan,member of the Board of Directors of theShellfish Institute of North America,and several representatives of the Vir-ginia and Maryland Coastal Zone Manage-ment programs.

Serve as a catalyst to distillpoints of view agreed upon bythose parties, and from this,-Develop a positive program ofaction for management of the-Bay'sresources for the best public use.

Most importantly, the Citizen's Pro-gram hopes to generate increased citizeninvolvement and understanding of theissues that are and will be critical tothe continued beneficial use of theresources of the Chesapeake Bay.

MARINE RESOURCEINFORMATION BULLETIN

VIRGINIA INSTITUTE OF MARINE SCIENCEGloucester Point, Virginia 23062

ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED