Watermen get to work under state program

Crews on a dozen workboats circled in the Severn River yesterday, dragging mesh dredges to clean off the tops of old oyster bars.

While the watermen would rather be hauling up oysters to sell or getting in a bit of late-season crabbing, they signed up for a sure - albeit temporary - paycheck from the state instead.

The crews on the Severn were hired by the state to prepare the oyster bars so they can be planted later with baby oysters. The bars are off-limits to harvesting.

It's part of a $3 million state program to employ watermen to get them through tough financial times. It's no bailout and the work isn't easy money, said Larry Simns, president of the Maryland Watermen's Association.

"It means another house payment, another boat payment ... But they'd make a whole lot more doing their regular job," Mr. Simns said.

This week, a dozen crews were working in the Severn at Sharps Point and Tolly Point, with another dozen on the Patuxent River and more than 20 in Tangier Sound.

This week was the first week of work under the watermen-for-hire program. All told, about 100 acres of bay bottom will be prepped for oyster plantings this week.

Larger-scale work on the water will take place in early spring, with another 900 acres of oyster bars to be scraped off and cleaned up. There also will be land-based work for watermen who want jobs, but don't have the right gear for the work that needs to be done.

The early winter and early spring time periods were identified by watermen as the toughest financially. They also represent the early beginnings and the last stages of the annual crab harvest.

The program was created with $3 million from the state budget after the Department of Natural Resources enacted tougher restrictions on commercial crabbers in order to shrink down the harvest.

With the total blue crab population plummeting, too great a percentage of crabs has been harvested in recent years, scientists warned. They hope that the harvest restrictions will help the crabs rebound, but it leaves crabbers in a pinch until that happens.

Watermen jumped at the chance to pick up the work. A total of 695 watermen applied for the work, with 105 being put to work this week. Others will get a chance to work later.

Boat captains are earning $500 per day, an amount that also covers their expenses, such as fuel. Crewmembers make $150 per day. When the land-based work takes place, the pay will be $15 per hour.

"It's not a bonanza," said Mr. Simns, who ferried reporters to the Severn River worksite yesterday aboard his charter boat, the Dawn II.

"It's a help," said Joe Kubert of Kent Island, who captained Corruption with his dad, Rick, working alongside. "It helps the bay and it helps us out at a time before Christmas and everything."

Mr. Kubert said he was hit "extremely hard" by the crabbing restrictions this year, when harvest for females was shut down early this fall. "We work hard all summer. We make a little money in the summer and then the fall run's when we save up all our money to get through the wintertime," he said.

It's not new for the state to hire watermen. It's already done for surveys and projects where the state doesn't have the appropriate manpower or fishing gear. For example, certain rockfish surveys and a winter crab-dredge survey employ watermen.

The state sees the work as a win-win. Watermen can earn some extra cash, while work gets done that's helpful to the environment. Hiring watermen to do work - rather than just cutting them a check - benefits both parties.

Tom O'Connell, DNR's head of fisheries, said his agency will ask state lawmakers for $3 million again during the next General Assembly session. And the federal government recently awarded the state $10 million over the next few years for the same purpose.

"The governor is very committed to keeping the watermen working during this difficult time period," he said.

Because the work involves oysters, the state teamed up with the nonprofit Oyster Recovery Partnership to run the program. ORP coordinates oyster restoration in the state.

"This was a pretty significant program to put together in a short period of time," Mr. O'Connell said.