NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - With watermen howling in protest and threatening to sue, Virginia officials passed sweeping limits Tuesday on harvesting blue crabs from coastal waters and the Chesapeake Bay - moves intended to avert a population crash of the famed seafood species.

Most notable among the changes was the end, at least for this year, of the controversial practice of capturing females as they hibernate in the muddy bottom of the Bay each winter, a practice called winter dredging.

Such crabbing will not occur this year for the first time since 1905.

The actions by the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, by a 7-2 vote, came after nearly four hours of debate among scientists, state officials, environmentalists and watermen and their families at a packed meeting room in Newport News.

They also came a week after the governors of Virginia and Maryland pledged to cut harvests of female crabs in the Bay by 34 percent this year, and a day after Maryland made its own proposals for meeting the conservation goal.

Scientific studies show crab stocks teetering on the edge of collapse after years of consistent decline and despite dozens of state regulations that over the past 15 years did little to reverse the slide.

To address the problem, the VMRC also voted Tuesday to:

- Close the Virginia season for taking female crabs a month early this fall, on Oct. 27, instead of Nov. 30.

- Require Virginia watermen to use 15 percent fewer pots for catching hard crabs and 30 percent fewer pots for taking peeler crab, or those animals about to shed their shells, which later are sold as soft crabs. The rule takes effect May 1.

- Stop issuing recreational crabbing licenses until populations rebound.

- Adopt a get-tough policy for watermen found guilty of two crab-conservation violations in a 12-month period. Offenders must now attend a formal commission hearing in which they could lose their licenses.

- Equip all crab pots with four escape rings, instead of two, to give pregnant females a better chance of reaching spawning grounds. The rule takes effect July 1.

Commission member Ernie Bowden, a commercial fisherman from Chincoteague, voted against the restrictions, saying they will put watermen out of work and may bankrupt some.

Bowden echoed criticisms from other watermen that the real problem with crab stocks is not commercial harvests, but rather the deteriorating ecological conditions of the Bay.

Pollution, excessive nutrients, too much waterfront development, lost underwater grasses, pressures from global warming and increased predation from other fish are the root causes, they argued - factors they cannot control.

"You might as well just shut the whole thing down, and pay these people off with a decent amount of money," Bowden said. His comments drew applause from the overflow crowd.

Also voting against the restrictions was commission member Wayne McLeskey, a real estate magnate from Virginia Beach. He wanted assurances that the government would help find displaced watermen other work.

While the commission's executive director, Steve Bowman, said he would request financial relief from Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and other leaders, he could not guarantee the aid.

"If I had the money, I'd gladly pay it," Bowman said.

His comment sparked one waterman to shout back, "You can buy my rig while you're at it."

"I wish I could," Bowman replied. "I really do."

Many watermen who testified against the measures Tuesday asked the commission to delay action for at least a month. Absent that, they threatened to sue the government in a class-action environmental lawsuit.

While sympathizing with their plight, and agreeing that more environmental cleanup is necessary, the majority of commission members were not persuaded.

"Failing to act now is probably the worst thing we can do," said John McConaugha, a crab scientist and biology professor at Old Dominion University.

The commission, at meetings in February and March, imposed other new rules intended to protect crabs. And members said more changes can be expected before the 2009 crab season opens next March, likely including more limits on pots.

Requiring identification tags on each pot probably will be part of the system as well, officials said.

To some in the crab industry, a $125 million-a-year enterprise in Virginia and Maryland, the changes adopted Tuesday and envisioned next year spell one thing - the end of full-time watermen on the Chesapeake.

"This may be reduced to a part-time fishery," said Johnny Graham III, whose family runs a crab processing plant in Hampton. "You might have put the nail in the coffin and made this a part-time fishery."

Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com