Lee Anne Washington discovered discrepancies in statements made by leading officals at VMRC in Robert Hollowell's lawsuit against VMRC concerning crab dredging. Ms. Washington asked The Honorable Harvey B. Morgan, chairman of House Agriculture Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee, to investigate VMRC’s handling of the crab dredging issue – including an investigation of the roles of Commissioner Bowman, Deputy Commissioner Travelstead, and Public Relations Director Bull.
Although the waterman's association was not involved in the lawsuit it must be noted that the association was supportive of Mr. Hollowell and Ms. Washington in that suit and are supportive of Ms. Washington in her quest for an investigation.
Below is that letter to Delegate Morgan.
By the way Ms. Washington successfully represented Mr. Hollowell. VMRC did not have the authority to permanately close (eliminate) in winter crab dredging fishery and must address the crab dredging fishery annually as it does other fisheries.
Ms. Washington is correct in her letter when she states that VMRC has lost the confidence of Virginia's commercial waterman.
AGAIN THE WATERMEN STAND IN SUPPORT OF MS. WASHINGTON!

May 25, 2009

 

 

The Honorable Harvey B. Morgan, Chairman

House Agriculture Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee

P.O. Box 949
Gloucester, VA 23061

 

Re:       Virginia Marine Resources Commission (“VMRC”)

            Crab Dredging

 

Dear Delegate Morgan,

 

            The Virginia General Assembly has entrusted the VMRC with a sacred public trust:  the duty of preserving and protecting one of our Country‘s greatest natural resources – the Chesapeake Bay.  In so doing, the VMRC has been given the power to “promulgate regulations, including those for taking seafood, necessary to promote the general welfare of the seafood industry and to conserve and promote the seafood and marine resources of the Commonwealth.” (See Exhibit 1, Va. Code §  28.2-201.) 

 

            It is with great consternation that I bring to the attention of the House Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources Committee certain contradictory statements that the VMRC has made to the United States Department of Commerce, the Virginia General Assembly, the Circuit Court of Norfolk, and the general public.  Below, I provide recorded instances of diametrically opposed statements made by the VMRC concerning its intent with regard to crab dredging in Virginia.

 

            Put simply, the VMRC has lost the confidence of Virginia’s 2,900 commercial watermen, their families,  and their friends.  The VMRC cannot maintain the public’s confidence or effectively fulfill its mission if it continues to change its message from audience to audience and from desired result to desired result. 

 

            The following examples of statements made by the VMRC lead to one of two devastating conclusions:  Either the VMRC is incompetently run and the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing or the VMRC has engaged in a concerted effort to mislead the aforementioned authorities. Neither conclusion is acceptable.

 

EXAMPLES

IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

OF VMRC’S CONTRDICTORY STATEMENTS

CONCERNING CRAB DREDGING IN VIRGINIA WATERS

 

I.  March 2008: Notice of Public Comment for April 22, 2008 VMRC Meeting

 

            In preparation for its April 22, 2008 meeting (the “Meeting”), the VMRC published the legally required notice (the Notice).  Paragraph 2 of the Notice states in pertinent part:  “Under the authority established by Section 28.2-707 of the Code of Virginia, the Commission will also consider proposals to shorten or eliminate the winter dredge fishery season. . .” (Emphasis added) (See Exhibit 2, Notice).

 

            The VMRC is constrained in what it can consider at any given meeting by the Notice.  At the Meeting, the VMRC had two choices – either shorten the winter dredge fishery season or “eliminate” it.

 

            Note Bene:  The VMRC is not precise in its use of the term “season.”  In some contexts it means December 1 through March 31 in any given year – i.e. the 2007 crab dredge season, the 2008 crab dredge season, etc.  In other contexts, such as in the Notice and the subsequent regulation, the term is used to denote a specific method, among several methods, of harvesting crabs during any given year – i.e., the crab pot season, the peeler pot season, the crab dredge season. 

 

           

II.  April 2008:  The VMRC Enacts the Eliminating Regulation

 

            At the Meeting I, and dozens of Virginia’s Commercial Watermen, requested that the VMRC table its consideration of “eliminating the winter crab dredge fishery season” until the next meeting to give us sufficient additional time to consider the legal ramifications of the proposed regulation and prepare a response.

 

            The VMRC denied our request and enacted Chapter 4VAC20-1140-10 et Seq., a regulation that did not in anyway “shorten” the winter dredge fishery season – it “eliminated” it.  That regulation is referred to hereafter as the “Eliminating Regulation”.

 

            The Eliminating Regulation makes the bold statement that it is “unlawful, for any person, to use a dredge, for catching crabs, from the waters of the Commonwealth” and repeals 18 regulations pertaining to crab dredging. (See Exhibit  3, Chapter 4VAC20-1140-10.)

 

May 2008:  Robert Hollowell Files an Appeal of the Eliminating Regulation

 

            Robert Hollowell, a commercial waterman who has earned a living by harvesting fish and shellfish from the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries since 1965, has been harvesting crabs by dredging for them during the winter months for over 29 years.  He timely filed a petition for appeal to the Norfolk Circuit Court challenging the legality of the VMRC’s passage of the Eliminating Regulation.  The petition does not state the grounds of the appeal, only which regulation is being appealed. (See Exhibit 4, Notice of Appeal.)

 

 III.  June 13, 2008:  VMRC Letter to Department of Commerce

 

            In a letter dated June 13, 2008,  Steve Bowman -- the VMRC Commissioner  -- wrote to Harold C. Mears -- the Office Director for the State, Federal, and Constituent Program Office of the United States Department of Commerce -- to provide additional documentation in support of the Virginia and Maryland request for declaration of a blue crab fishery resource disaster.

 

            Consistent with the Notice and the Eliminating Regulation, Commissioner Bowman explains to Mr. Mears that “[t]wo main components of the Virginia plan to reduce the harvest of female crabs that are associated with lost income, to fishermen, are the establishment of an early season closure in 2008 and the elimination of the 100-year old winter dredge fishery.”  He further explains that “[i]n April the VMRC eliminated this long standing fishery.”  And finally,  Commissioner Bowman states that “It was very difficult for the Commission, in Virginia, to eliminate the crab dredge fishery.”  (Emphasis added.) (See Exhibit 5, June 13, 2008 Letter from Bowman to Mears).

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 23, 2008:  Hollowell Files His Petition for Appeal

           

            Robert Hollowell asserts in his petition for appeal that “[u]nder the statute [Va. Code §  28.2-707], the Commission has the authority to extend, limit, or close a season in its entirety, but not the authority to eliminate the crab dredging fishery altogether which  is the de facto result of the Eliminating Regulation.” (Exhibit 6, Petition for Appeal, p.9 of 13).

 

IV.  November 2008:  Annual Report to Governor and General Assembly  Regarding Blue Crab Fisheries Management Plan         

 

            With apparent knowledge of the mounting controversy concerning whether VMRC has the authority to “eliminate” the crab dredge fishery, Commissioner Bowman in his report to the Governor and General Assembly is careful to confine his report of the Commission’s action to the statutory limit of just one season.  In one section of the report, Commissioner Bowman reports that “ [t]he Commission Suspended the 2008/2009 winter dredge fishery season.”  In another section, he explains that “[t]he Commission has also planned, and will fund, a work program, designed to assist some of the 53 crab dredge fishermen who were impacted by the closure of the 2008/2009 winter crab dredge season.”

 

            Nowhere in the Report does Commissioner Bowman inform the Governor and the General Assembly that “[i]n April the VMRC eliminated this long standing fishery” or explain that “[t]wo main components of the Virginia plan to reduce the harvest of female crabs that are associated with lost income, to fishermen, are the establishment of an early season closure in 2008 and the elimination of the 100-year old winter dredge fishery” or express the sentiment that “[i]t was very difficult for the Commission, in Virginia, to eliminate the crab dredge fishery”  -- as he had previously done in his letter to the United States Department of Commerce.  Instead, he leaves it to the reader to ferret out this information from Attachment II. (See Exhibit 7, p. 27 of 79.)

 

           

IV.  December 2008:  Representations to Circuit Court of Norfolk

           

             Then, contrary to everything that the VMRC had publicly stated to that point, it repeatedly “[d]enies that the challenged regulation eliminates crab dredging in Virginia waters” in its Answer to Hollowell’s Petition for Appeal. (See Exhibit 8, VMRC Answer, numbered paragraphs 1, 2, 19, 21, 23, 34, 35, 36, 39, 41, 42, 54, 57, and 60.) 

           

 

 

V.  March 26, 2009:  Representations to  General Public

 

            Finally, in complete contradiction to the previously filed Answer, John Bull, Director of Public Relations for the VMRC, stated in an interview on March 26, 2009 with the Northern Neck News -- a local weekly newspaper which services the five counties of the Northern Neck -- that the $10 million dollars in federal funds appropriated for crab fisheries disaster relief was “a ‘bridge program’ to help crab dredgers get through a few years until they can find another way to make a living in the winter months. ‘We don’t expect to reinstate the crab dredging season.’” (Emphasis added.) (See Exhibit 9.)

 

           

 

VI.  April 2009:  Court Sets Aside Criminal Provisions of Regulation and Requires Revision of Regulation to Pertain only to December 1, 2008 – March 31, 2009 Crab Dredging Season. (See Exhibit 10.)

 

 

______________________

                                   

             

The examples presented here beg the following questions, among others: 

 

1)      If the VMRC does not plan to “reinstate” the crab dredging season, how does that differ from “eliminating” it?

2)      Has the VMRC committed a fraud against the United States Department of Commerce or the Norfolk Circuit Court?

3)       Is the VMRC so bereft of integrity that it cannot admit when it has overstepped its authority –choosing to obfuscate the truth, instead?

 

            As the Secretary and General Counsel of the Virginia State Waterman’s Association, I respectfully request a thorough investigation of the VMRC’s handling of the crab dredging issue – including an investigation of the roles of Commissioner Bowman, Deputy Commissioner Travelstead, and Public Relations Director Bull in:

 

1)      making representations to the United States Department of Commerce;

2)      making representations to the Norfolk Circuit Court; and

3)      making representations to the general public.

 

            Finally, I note that it has been 35 years since a JLARC study has been done on the Virginia Marine Resources Commission and it’s about time for another one. 

            Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.  If you have any questions or I can be of any assistance to you or your committee, please feel free to contact me – I’ll be glad to do what I can.

 

                                                                        Sincerely,

 

 

                                                                        Lee Anne Washington

                                                                        Secretary & General Counsel

                                                                        Virginia State Waterman’s Association