by Larry Chowning
FORT MONROE—Winter crab dredging in Virginia waters this year appears out of reach after the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) voted 4-1 on Tuesday, September 24, to seek public comment on banning the dredge fishery for the 2024-25 crab season.
As part of the motion, VMRC voted to advertise extending the crab pot season and to study the possibility of a dredge fishery in the future. VMRC appears to be taking the advice of its Crab Management Advisory Committee (CMAC) which voted 8-5 in August to recommend the VMRC not reopen the dredge fishery until a bay-wide stock assessment is complete in 2026.
VMRC closed the fishery in 2008 as part of a bay-wide effort to reduce the blue crab harvest by 34%. That ban on the crab dredge fishery amounted to half of….
