Published: February 28, 2009 11:41 pm      

Pollution pinches Chesapeake crabs

A century of water pollution killed native trout in the streams of northern Cambria and Clearfield counties.

That same pollution also has contributed to the decline of blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay.

That’s how what happens here threatens the nation’s largest estuary – the bay that brings salt water in from the Atlantic Ocean, while carrying fresh water from the Susquehanna River, which is fed by polluted waters from Cambria County.

That’s also one factor – just one – that is blamed by Virginia and Maryland for a growing threat to the fishing industry.

The blue crab population is at an all-time low, and two factors are to blame: Pollution and overfishing.

There are six sub-basins of the 444-mile Susquehanna that feed the bay.

Acid-mine drainage is blamed for pollution from this region, while farm runoff is the main culprit to the east.

There is less crab food, less crab habitat and too much catching of fish the crabs feed on.

In 2007, watermen suffered the worst crab harvest since Chesapeake Bay recordkeeping began in 1945. Last year was even worse in Virginia, and only slightly better in Maryland, causing more than $640 million in losses, reports show.

Last year, Virginia and Maryland banned the commercial harvest of female crabs until spring.

Although at least 4,486 crabbing-related jobs have been lost during the last decade in Maryland and Virginia, 6,760 of these jobs remain.

Much of this is why the federal government has issued a mandate to clean up the bay by 2010, and why the Susquehanna River Basin Commission is drawing attention to the link between Pennsylvania’s waterways and the Chesapeake.

If that cleanup progress can be demonstrated, Maryland and Virginia might not have to impose as many restrictions on crabbing.

That’s also why a grant will be used for an educational-recreational water trail to strengthen the public’s perception of the link between the Susquehanna and the bay. Part of it will run between Carrolltown and Sunbury, emphasizing the West Branch headwaters in northern Cambria County.

The trail will include parks and tourism areas that highlight themes and facts connecting the rivers and the bay.