Chesapeake Bay News

The Board of Public Works approved the naming of the Choptank River Fishing Pier in Dorchester County in honor of Bill Burton, a reporter, writer and fisherman who has for more than 50 years chronicled outdoor opportunities for Maryland citizens. The Bill Burton Fishing Pier State Park offers a perfect tribute to Bill’s life and work – the pier is a destination fishing sport for anglers, and a popular access point for many working families of Maryland – and he was instrumental in preserving the Choptank River Bridge for a fishing pier when the new bridge was constructed.

Bill’s commitment to the promotion, sustainability and prosperity of fishing and hunting in Maryland is unquestioned by those that know him, especially during the past two years as he has continued to write professionally while fighting cancer. Despite many physical setbacks, he continues to fish and write about fishing, hunting and the great outdoors. In April, Burton was inducted into the Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association Hall of Fame. The year’s Maryland Fishing Challenge also celebrates Bill’s life and career.

source: DNR press release

John Sparrow from Waldorf, MD has caught the second tagged striped bass in the 2009 Maryland Fishing Challenge. Sparrow was fishing in Cove Point when he hooked the prized rockfish, which could be worth up to $20,000!

“I want to congratulate Mr. Sparrow as the second winner in the 2009 Maryland Fishing Challenge,” said Governor Martin O’Malley. “Mr. Sparrow shows a love for fishing which is what the Fishing Challenge is about: encouraging families to spend time outdoors enjoying the Bay and experience our State’s natural resources.”

Over the summer, three batches of 50 specially tagged striped bass – one authentic Diamond Jim and 49 imposters – are being released into the waters of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Since June’s Diamond Jim eluded capture during its validity period, the current Diamond Jim — which was released on July 1 — is now worth $20,000. Also still on the loose are nearly 100 imposters worth $500 each. If July’s Jim is not caught, a newly tagged Diamond Jim released in August will carry a $25,000 price on its head.

“We were racing for the net, we were hoping it was him,” said Sparrow. “We’ve been talking about the Diamond Jim contest all summer, even the non-fishermen are talking about it.”

Sparrow – and the rest of Maryland – will find out July 30, at a ceremony during the August tagging in Solomons, MD, whether he snagged the $20,000 Diamond Jim or a $500 imposter, when the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) gives him the prize envelope matching the tag on his fish.

Created to promote recreational fishing in Maryland, recognize angler efforts and inspire natural resources stewardship, the 2009 Maryland Fishing Challenge will run through Labor Day, September 7, 2009. Sparrow—and any angler who catches a prize fish – will also be entered into the final awards ceremony in September, and will be eligible for the grand prizes including a boat, motor and trailer from Bass Pro Shops and thousands of dollars in prizes from Bill’s Outdoor Center on Deep Creek Lake. Short will receive his reward at the August release of Diamond Jim in Solomons.

More than 60 species of fish are eligible for the grand prizes, including large and smallmouth bass, trout, walleye, musky and panfish in the freshwaters of Maryland; rockfish (striped bass), bluefish, drum, sea trout and perch in the Chesapeake Bay; and tuna, marlin, flounder, kingfish and sea bass caught in Maryland waters off the Atlantic Coast. Grand prize winners will be randomly selected at a closing ceremony in mid-September.

As an added youth component, children participating in various fishing rodeos across the State may qualify for a unique category and win a guided fishing trip. Last year 12 children won trips donated by Maryland charter boat captains, which are currently being scheduled and will take place throughout the summer.

“Catch a fish” is one of the Maryland Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights, issued by Governor Martin O’Malley in April. The Bill is part of the Maryland Partnership for Children in Nature, an initiative to ensure all Maryland young people have the opportunity to connect with their natural world and grow to become informed and responsible stewards.

Complete Rules are available online at www.dnr.maryland.gov/fishingchallenge and Marylanders can also follow Diamond Jim at www.facebook.com/diamondjim_md or www.twitter.com/Diamondjim_md

Late summer and early fall is prime time for catching big spot and croakers in the middle and lower Chesapeake Bay. As summer heats up, spot and croaker begin to school up and are caught in ever increasing numbers in many Chesapeake hotspots.

This fishing is easy and new comers will find spot and croaker to be rewarding fish to go after. Anglers need only a sensitive rod and reel in good condition, bottom rigs and baits such as bloodworms, squid strips, pieces of shrimp, cut peeler crab or any of the bait products such as fish bites.

By late July and early August, anglers sometimes experience unbelievable catches of both species. As the season goes on, a larger class of spot arrive, known for their bronze or yellow coloring. Mixed in with the spot-croaker runs are Spanish mackeral, bluefish, gray trout, pigfish and other species.

Spot and croaker fishing often gets better and better thru September. Many anglers prefer the fall as the summer crowds have left and the temperatures are cooler. Both species linger in parts of the Bay until late fall.

A new facility is to be known as the “Martha H. Williams Memorial Pool at Somers Cove Marina”.

Governor Martin O’Malley was joined by state and local officials to dedicate the Somers Cove Marina Pool in Crisfield with a new name, the “Martha H. Williams Memorial Pool at Somers Cove Marina.” The announcement was made at the Annual J. Millard Tawes Crab & Clam Bake in Crisfield, MD on Wednesday, July 15.

“Mrs. Williams may not be with us now, but her memory will live on forever through this pool that she used as her classroom for 11 years,” said Governor O’Malley.

In April, Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Secretary John Griffin requested on behalf of the Somers Cove Marina Commission that the Board of Public Works (BPW) approve the renaming of the Somers Cove Marina Pool after Martha H. Williams, an American Red Cross volunteer and swimming instructor at the marina pool for more than 11 years. Through her efforts, more than 500 children learned to swim and many of them went on to become lifeguards in the area. Williams passed away in December 2008. The swimming program continues today, where many children of Mrs. Williams’ students are now learning to swim. The BPW approved the renaming at its May 20th meeting.

Among the state and local officials present were Delegate Norman Conway, Crisfield Mayor P.J. Purnell, Jr., DNR Secretary John Griffin, Williams family members, the Somers Cove Marina Commission and local citizens.

“Both the Commission and I feel it is a fitting tribute to name the Somers Cove Marina pool in honor of this dedicated volunteer,” said Secretary Griffin.

Representatives of the Maryland Red Cross presented a plaque to the Somers Cove Marina Commission at the Annual J. Millard Tawes Crab & Clam Bake. Held every year on the third Wednesday in July at Somers Cover Marina in Crisfield, the event is a celebration in honor of Crisfield native J. Millard Tawes, the 54th Governor of Maryland, and is recognized as one of Maryland’s finest seafood festivals with all-you-can-eat crabs, clams, fish, corn-on-the-cob and much more in an outdoor setting.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is seeking interested adults to become TEAM (Teaching Environmental Awareness in Maryland) volunteers. Our volunteers’ mission is to educate students about the Chesapeake Bay and other Maryland environmental issues. Since its inception in 1998, TEAM DNR volunteers have delivered over 1000 classroom programs to more than 30,000 students in Maryland.

Volunteers should have an outgoing personality and a strong desire to protect the Chesapeake Bay. No prior teaching experience is necessary. Currently, TEAM offers schools free classroom programs on the following topics:

* Chesapeake Bay Watershed

* Streams

* Oyster Reefs

* Horseshoe Crabs

* Chesapeake Watermen

The next workshop will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday, August 14, 2009 in the C-1 Conference Room of the Tawes State Office Building, located at 580 Taylor Ave. Annapolis, MD 21401. Participants are asked to bring their own lunch. Beverages and snacks will be provided.

To register for a workshop, contact Amy Henry at 410-260-8828 or ahenry@dnr.state.md.us. For more information about this valuable program, visit www.dnr.maryland.gov/education/teamdnr.

While the overall crab population in the Chesapeake Bay rebounded significantly last year, the number of juvenile crabs remained well below the historical average, according to a report published by the NOAA-chaired Fisheries Steering Committee.

“New regulations implemented by the various bay jurisdictions in 2008 seem to be working,” said Peyton Robertson, director of the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office. “The continued improvements in science and their application to management appear to be resulting in a
positive direction for the blue crab in the Chesapeake.”

The 2009 Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab Advisory Report, developed by the Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee, is based primarily on data collected in the 2008-09 bay-wide winter dredge survey, the most comprehensive and statistically robust annual blue crab survey
conducted in the bay.

The data shows:

Abundance of blue crabs over the age of one was 223 million, a 70 percent increase from the 2007-08 survey numbers. This was primarily due to an increase in abundance of spawning-age females. Since the winter dredge survey began in 1990, the average blue crab population in the bay has been 186 million.

Bay-wide, numbers of juvenile crabs entering the population did not increase appreciably. There were an estimated 179 million juvenile crabs in the bay—well below the survey’s long-term average of 258 million.

The estimated 2008 harvest of blue crabs from the bay and tributaries was 48.6 million pounds—11 percent higher than the record-low 43.5 million pounds in 2007, but well below the long-term average of 74 million pounds.

Based on these statistics, an estimated 48 percent of crabs were harvested from the bay by commercial and recreational fishers in 2008. That is below the overfishing threshold of 53 percent, but slightly above the target of 46 percent.

“While it is heartening to see numbers rebound, resource managers need to maintain conservation measures until their full effects are known,” Robertson said. “We won’t know the full effectiveness of the new regulations implemented in 2008 until we study results from the next two winter dredge surveys.”

The Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee includes fisheries scientists from the University of Maryland, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, NOAA’s Fisheries Service and the states of Maryland and Virginia. The Fisheries Steering Committee works with the various bay management jurisdictions and is a forum where fisheries management agencies communicate and coordinate decisions across management boundaries.

The 3rd annual Maryland Hunting and Outdoor Expo – held Aug. 15 and 16 at the Charles County Fairgrounds in La Plata – has something for outdoorsmen of all ages and interests. The Expo has welcomed thousands of visitors in each of its first two years and another huge turnout is expected this year.

Come out and learn some big buck tips from Stan Potts, host of North American Whitetail Television. Participate in the “Ultimate Bowhunter 3D Classic” archery shoot or meet “The Martin Girl” Laura Francese. You can also test drive an ATV from Trumbull Motorsports, see Coty Jones’ state record black bear or have your trophy buck scored for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources trophy deer book.

Local country singer John Luskey will perform on Saturday. And don’t forget to bring the young ones. The Kids Zone is bigger and better than ever. There will be a 26-foot rock wall, an inflatable slide, a Jurassic Adventure, games and much more.

If you enjoy hunting, fishing, camping, boating and everything the great outdoors has to offer, you can’t miss this event. There will be door prizes, raffles and giveaways all day Saturday and Sunday. The first 500 through the gates each day will be entered to win a new Benelli shotgun. And as a special treat, all visitors will receive a free copy of Buckwild Outdoors magazine, a glossy, full-color publication dedicated to everything that keeps the Maryland sportsman in the field or on the water.

For more information on exhibits and schedules, visit www.mdhuntingexpo.com

In an effort toward effective management of Maryland’s blue crab population, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is offering to permanently buy back 3,676 commercial limited crab catcher (LCC) licenses. DNR is implementing this buy-back program in response to public feedback offering solutions for reducing the number of inactive crabbing licenses. The agency mailed letters to all current LCC license holders informing them of this voluntary program, which will use Federal Blue Crab Disaster Funds to reduce latent effort in Maryland’s commercial blue crab fishery. Latent effort is defined as fishing effort that is not currently deployed in the fishery.

To sustainably manage the blue crab fishery, the Bay-wide targeted annual blue crab harvest is limited to removal of 46 percent of the population. Last year, in a coordinated strategy to limit the 2008 harvest to the 46 percent target and to begin rebuilding the depleted crab population, Maryland, Virginia and the Potomac River Fisheries Commission adopted measures to reduce the harvest of the spawning stock of female blue crabs by 34 percent. The most recent winter dredge survey results noted a substantial increase in the adult population over 2008, indicating new management measures are working.

Inactive licenses account for approximately one-third of LCC license holders, making it difficult to adopt management strategies that will ensure the harvest target is met, while allowing full-time active crabbers to make an adequate wage. Having such a large number of people who may or may not crab in any given year poses a long-term biological and economic threat to a rebuilding stock.

“Our concern is if even a fraction of these individuals decide to re-enter the fishery in a given year, our regulations will not be sufficient to maintain the harvest target,” said DNR Secretary John Griffin. “The license buy-back program is our first step to reduce the amount of latent effort in Maryland’s commercial blue crab fishery.”

To address this problem, DNR is offering a commercial limited buy-back program through a reverse auction. The process requires individuals to submit bids to the Department for the amount of money they determine their license to be worth. If an individual chooses to sell his or her license and DNR accepts the bid, the license will be permanently retired. DNR held four open houses in April – targeting commercial crabbers and key legislators — to educate the public on the problem of latent effort and to obtain public input on possible solutions.

The deadline for submitting bids to DNR is July 31, 2009. After receiving all bids, DNR will use the range of bids received to calculate the maximum acceptable bid. Bids under that amount will be accepted from lowest to highest, until the available budget is exhausted. Individuals will be notified of acceptance or rejection of their bid by August 15, 2009, and accepted bidders will receive their payments in early September, 2009.

If inactive license holders choose not to submit a bid, or if DNR does not accept the auction bid, the license will be subject to new regulations that will be proposed in fall 2009. If approved, these regulations will require inactive LCC license holders to choose among several options. These may include: access to a limited, male-only harvest, with the licensing becoming non-transferable; or a temporary freeze of the license until the blue crab population has maintained target abundance, as determined by the Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee. An inactive license holder is defined as an individual who has not reported any harvest between April 1, 2004 and December 15, 2008. The deadline to return 2008 reports to the Department was January 2, 2009. Reports received by the Department after January 31, 2009 will not be counted toward an individual’s harvest history.

“Our counterparts in Virginia are also pursuing a license buy-back program this summer using Federal Blue Crab Disaster Funds, and the Potomac River Fisheries Commission is discussing this as well,” said Fisheries Director Tom O’Connell. “Working in close coordination with them, we can continue to do our job of maintaining the Bay’s iconic blue crab fishery so that it will prosper for many generations to come.”

Last year, Maryland and Virginia were each awarded $10 million in Federal Blue Crab Disaster Funds from NOAA‘s National Marine Fisheries Service, in response to a request from Governors O’Malley and Kaine, and advocacy by the Maryland Congressional Delegation under the leadership of Senator Barbara Mikulski. In June, Maryland applied for an additional $5 million in Federal Blue Crab Disaster Funding that became available in May.

Maryland’s Federal Blue Crab Fisheries Disaster Funding is being directed toward work for watermen, addressing latent effort, a quality crab meat assurance program, economic diversification into aquaculture, packaging equipment upgrades for processors, a seafood marketing program for blue crabs and enhanced harvest reporting and enforcement of crabbing restrictions.

In 2008, Governor Martin O’Malley worked with Maryland legislators to identify $3 million to fund a work program through which more than 500 watermen have conducted oyster bar rehabilitation activities. An additional $3 million is included in the State’s FY ’10 budget to continue this important work.

Detailed summaries of open house material, summaries of public comment received and LCC buy back information are available at: www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/crab/crabindex.html

The Magothy River Association, in conjunction with the state sponsored “Maryland Grows

Oysters” program, is recruiting oyster gardeners for the 2009-2010 season. If you have

access to a pier on the Magothy River, and can spare a few minutes every week or so, you can

do this! The MGO program is free to all participants.

This is at least a one year commitment. The oysters you grow will be placed on restored

oyster reefs in the Magothy River late in the summer of 2010. We ask that you consider

taking a new batch of oysters at that time to start the process over again.

To sign up, send an e-mail to magothyriversavers@yahoo.com with your name, address, phone,

e-mail, and preferred number of cages (4 minimum).

The oyster pickup is tentatively planned for a weekend in September. Details will be sent as

the program evolves. For more information please visit the following website:

http://www.h2006.net/MRAOys01

The Maryland “Becoming an Outdoors Woman” (BOW) program is now accepting registrations for its fall 2009 workshop. The fall workshop will be held at the Garrett County 4-H camp near Deep Creek Lake on October 23 through 25. BOW offers outdoor skills workshops in a relaxed environment specifically for women 18 years of age and older to learn outdoor skills. Men are also welcome.

“The BOW program promotes a casual setting helpful to learning, making friends and having fun,” said BOW State Coordinator Patty Allen. “The program’s safe, hands-on approach gives participants the knowledge to further pursue their interest once the workshop is over.”

Maryland adopted the “Becoming an Outdoors-Woman” program in 1994 (which was nationally formed in 1991). Since then, Maryland has offered quality outdoor experiences to over 4,000 participants. The emphasis of BOW is on the enjoyment and camaraderie that goes along with outdoor recreation, whether it’s hunting, fishing, hiking or boating.

Participants choose from of over 30 courses such as outdoor photography, geocaching, turkey hunting, fly fishing, hiking, kayaking, outdoor survival skills and many more. Participants may design their outdoor experience to match their own interests. Weekend workshops begin with lunch on Friday and end with lunch on Sunday.
For more information and to register for the upcoming workshop, visit http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/bowevents.asp or call Patty Allen at 410-260-8537.