Thread: MD- Lack of visas hurt crab industry

Lack of visas hurt crab industry


March 23, 2009 11:25 PM ET

FISHING CREEK, Md. (AP) - Because would-be crab pickers haven't been able to get H2B temporary visas, many crab processing plans in Dorchester County are expected to stay closed when the season opens on April 1.

And Chesapeake Bay area watermen want First District Congressman Frank Kratovil to do something about the situation.

On Friday, some 150 waterman and people representing other industries met with Kratovil at the A.E. Phillips packing plant in Fishing Creek. There, crab pickers, mostly from Mexico, would be working - but federal red tape prevents their arrival.

This year, the H2B program was limited at 66,000 temporary visas. None of those went to the people who had been working in Dorchester County's crab processing plants.


Information from: Star Democrat Easton, http://www.stardem.com

http://www.wric.com/global/story.asp?s=10058441

BULL CRAP ... there was a report that said the Crab Industry in the Chesapeake Bay was having one of the lowest hauls in over 10 years... the shell industry is suffering as well and blaming it on contaminated waters

Report: Chesapeake Bay Health Is Not Improving

Associated Press
Thursday, March 19, 2009; 5:23 PM

The health of the ailing Chesapeake Bay has shown no improvement over the past year as pollution caused by population growth and development overwhelms cleanup efforts, according to a report released Thursday.

The annual study by the Chesapeake Bay Program said the nation's largest estuary remains "severely degraded" because of contaminants such as nitrogen, phosphorous and sediments.

The bay's health is at 38 percent, with 100 percent representing a fully restored ecosystem, according to the federal-state partnership working on bay restoration.

"The impact of human activity is overwhelming nature," the report states. The Chesapeake Bay watershed stretches about 64,000 square miles and includes about 17 million people in portions of New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and the District of Columbia.

The pollutants come from the runoff of fertilizers and manure from farms as well as from a growing number of paved surfaces. That is feeding algae blooms, which block sunlight and choke off oxygen.

"If you're a rockfish and you can't see your next meal, we've got a problem," said Richard Batiuk, associate director for science at the Chesapeake Bay Program.

Poor water quality continues to keep most fish and shellfish populations far below desired levels, according to the report. In a significant setback, the estimated population of the bay's hallmark blue crabs declined to 120 million last year, down from 143 million in 2007.

The gloomy assessment of the nation's largest estuary comes despite a multibillion-dollar cleanup effort that has been under way for more than 25 years. In that time, several deadlines to restore the bay have been missed.

Roy Hoagland, a vice president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation advocacy group, said that while each person living in the bay's watershed is producing about 50 percent less pollution than two decades ago, population growth is offsetting that progress.

"We're simply holding the line," said Hoagland, whose group filed a federal lawsuit in January to force stronger federal action against polluters.

Hoagland and others said Thursday they are hopeful the Obama administration will have the political will needed to turn the bay around. One positive sign, they said, was the economic stimulus legislation that supports investments in renewable energy and other "green" job initiatives.

Besides more government help, though, officials said residents in the watershed must do their part. The report said even small steps could make a difference, such as picking up pet waste, planting trees and shrubs to filter stormwater runoff, and avoid fertilizing lawns.

Not all the news in the report is discouraging. There is an 18 percent increase in underwater bay grasses from 2007. The grasses are important because they filter excess nutrients from the water and provide habitat and food for fish.

Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and the District of Columbia have also met a goal to permanently protect 20 percent of their combined 34 million acres by 2010. That effort is considered important because forests and other natural areas help filter pollution before it reaches the bay.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 02770.html

Chesapeake Bay’s Crab Population In Danger
Posted on: Wednesday, 4 March 2009, 14:20 CST

Watermen in Chesapeake Bay are struggling to make a living in the region that was once home to one of the most bountiful fisheries in the US.

As early as 1993, the Bay was credited with about half of the country’s blue crab harvest, according to the AP. But a development boom has resulted in declining catches and the US Commerce Department declared the fishery a federal disaster last September. As a result, Maryland and Virginia were forced to shut down the stream for fishing until spring.

Now, some watermen have turned to taking jobs retrieving abandoned crab traps from the Bay at a wage of about $300 a day as they wait until it reopens in March.

"We're not trying to tear the Bay up. We're just trying to make a living off a fishery that's been going for more than 100 years," waterman Spencer Headley told the AP.

"Why all of a sudden is it a disaster?"

Since the region has boomed in new developments, some 16.6 million people now live in its watershed. An average of 439 more people move to the region each day, said the AP.

This growth translates into more traffic and more urban developments taking the place of forests and farmland, the impacts of which can be seen in Sligo Creek, where a stream picks up trace amounts of pollutants from fertilizers, pet feces, motor oil and silt.

Water from the creek is exposed to sewage from farms and treatment plants. The fertilizers contain nitrogen and phosphorus, which algae blooms feed from, effectively taking oxygen from the water and killing clams and worms from which the blue crab receives its nourishment.

The 2007 catch was the worst in recorded history, and last year the catch was even worse in Virginia and only slightly better in Maryland, according to the AP.

"The Bay is now degraded to the point that its basic ability to withstand even low levels of pollution is in jeopardy," said Naval Academy professor Howard Ernst.

State governments and the Environmental Protection Agency have a $6 billion 25-year plan to clean the region, but its critics say it has failed to reach its goals.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, an environmental group, sued the EPA last month to force it to set a firm cap on pollutants. The group is heartened that new EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has promised to make the Bay cleanup a priority, according to the AP.

"We certainly are hearing the right words," said foundation president Will Baker. "But to be honest, we have heard those words for 30, 35 years and what we need to see is action."

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/16 ... in_danger/

A banner crab harvest is expected, but will consumers buy the catch?

BY STEVE SZKOTAK THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
updated 1:02 p.m. ET, Tues., March. 17, 2009

roanoke,va - (AP) - Success is seen in the effort to protect the crab population, but will consumers buy the catch? Virginia watermen begin their Chesapeake Bay blue crab harvest today with the prospect of a bountiful catch at a time when the sweet delicacy may be too pricey for cost-conscious consumers. The rich harvest is the expected result of sharply reduced catch limits enacted by Maryland and Virginia and stopping the winter dredge season in Virginia. The measures are intended to increase stocks of the bay’s signature catch, and watermen and regulators said they would produce the intended results. The economy, however, tempered enthusiasm among watermen for the loaded crab pots expected at the season’s opening. “Who can afford to buy crabs in this economy?“ asked Ken Smith, president of the Virginia Watermen’s Association. “Supply and demand,“ he said. “If you can’t sell your product, you’re not going to crab.“ Crab stocks are estimated to have declined 70 percent in the Chesapeake since the early 1990s because of overfishing and pollution, which harms crabs as well as the underwater grasses they need to thrive. Last year, the U.S. Commerce Department declared the crab fishery a federal disaster. Virginia and Maryland are splitting $20 million in disaster aid approved by Congress. The decline of the bay’s crab and oyster stocks could be measured by membership in Smith’s association. The association represents about 2,800 watermen in Virginia, perhaps a third of the number that worked the bay 25 years ago. About 700 are active crabbers. “There were so many crab pots, you could walk across the bay on them,“ Smith said. “When I was a kid, you ate a bushel of crabs every Saturday. Now, crabbers can’t afford to eat them.“ Most of the crabs pulled from Virginia’s portion of the bay will be processed by Graham & Rollins Inc. in Hampton, where Mexican workers on temporary visas will handpick crabs for market. In addition to ending the winter dredge, a century-old practice that scooped up hibernating pregnant crabs, Virginia also instituted other measures to help restore the bay’s crab population. They include reducing the number of pots a waterman can put out and creating a sanctuary in the middle of the bay. The Virginia season is tentatively scheduled to end in November.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29740098/

You have to watch Sen. Barbara Mikulski, she tries to slip those visas in for the crabbers and she will try stick it on anything, even a defense spending bill. She tries to extend a program for 3 years for temporary workers to re-enter the country without being subject to the limits on H2B visas. “It could be the end of crab meat,â€

There are areas of high unemployment around this country that crab pickers could be sourced from without going abroad.

Here's a novel approach! Instead of paying slave wages to third world H2B'ers, try offering a living wage and hiring American workers!

These companies should not be allowed to import labor under H2B visas, simply because it's more favorable to their bottom line, rather than hiring an American citizen!

Does anyone know if all those coming on the H2B visas are required to pass a health check?
My ex-husband and I used to cruise the bay a lot in the 1970s and at every marina we pulled into we would scrub the bow which was a nice neon green from the algae.

Crab Industry Worries About Few Visas for Pickers

Posted: March 24, 2009 08:04 AM CDT

Workers May Not Return to Md. Seafood Industry






FISHING CREEK, Md. (AP)- Because would-be crab pickers have not been able to get temporary visas, many crab processing plants in Dorchester County are expected to stay closed when the season opens on April 1.


And Chesapeake Bay area watermen want First District U.S. Rep. Frank Kratovil to do something about the situation.

On Friday, about 150 watermen and people representing other industries met with Kratovil at the A.E. Phillips packing plant in Fishing Creek. Crab pickers, mostly from Mexico, would be working at the plant but federal red tape prevents their arrival.

Each year for more than 10 years, people from Mexico and Central America have traveled to the Eastern Shore to work in crab processing plants. Only a few Dorchester residents, now nearly all senior citizens, continue to pick crabs for a living.

Young people from the area find work elsewhere. This is partly because they were not allowed into the picking houses as children, which is how previous generations learned the work. Maryland law requires crab pickers, who use knives, to be at least 16 (for which a permit is required) or 18 without parental permission.

At first, there were enough temporary worker visas _ not just for crab picking, but for landscaping, construction and other seasonal businesses.

But as Americans became concerned about immigrants taking residents' jobs, Congress began limiting the number of H2B visas and creating other obstacles for businesses that depend on temporary workers.

This year, the H2B program was limited at 66,000 temporary visas. None of those went to the people who had been working in Dorchester County's crab processing plants.

On Friday Kratovil discussed congressional legislation proposed to permit crab pickers and other seasonal workers to return to the United States this year.

He is among the original co-sponsors of House of Representatives Bill 1136, for which U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Michigan, is the chief sponsor. The legislation, Called the Save Our Small and Seasonal Businesses Act of 2009, is designed to allow any H2B temporary worker who came to the United States during at least one of the past three years to continue to qualify for another temporary visa.

As proposed, Kratovil said, the law would allow for a permanent extension of the H2B program which has, in recent years, been held up until new legislation was passed for its continuance.

U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Maryland, has proposed similar legislation in the U.S. Senate (SB 38, Kratovil said, but for only five years.

Kratovil has been working to increase support for HR 1136.

"I'm not Superman," Kratovil said Friday, explaining the limited powers of a freshman congressman. But he added, "I guarantee you, I will be fighting to get this resolved as soon as we can."

Kratovil asked people to explain how the loss of H2B workers will affect their livelihoods.

Jack Brooks is president of Chesapeake Bay Seafood Industries Association. He said University of Maryland research found that every H2B temporary worker creates 2 1/2 jobs for Shore residents.

Bank of the Eastern Shore President Sonny Robbins, Gary Pinder of BB and T's Cambridge branch and Bill Marshall of the Bank of the Eastern Shore each talked about loans and mortgages held by watermen. They also said the temporary workers are bank customers.

Without the H2B workers, Marshall said, and with the increased harvest restrictions by the state, "We're on the verge of a collapse here."

Seafood buyer P.T. Hambleton of Bozman said watermen throughout the region will have nowhere to sell their crabs if packing houses close in Dorchester. "These plants are very important to all of us."

Joe Brooks of J.M. Clayton's crab processing plant in Cambridge pointed out that H2B workers pay income tax, Social Security and Medicare insurance, even though they will not benefit from Social Security and Medicare programs.

Brooks also pointed out that about 90 percent of the crabs caught by watermen is picked as crab meat. That means that when crab season opens April 1, without H2B workers, most crab packing plants will have no need for most of what is caught.


http://www.wboc.com/Global/story.asp?S= ... =menu222_2