 |
Commercial Fishingnews, events, and other information for the commercial fishing, aquaculture, and seafood industries |
 |
Business Tools
Virginia Commercial Fishing
Virginia offers a wide range of commercial fishing opportunities. Sea scallops, oysters, hard clams, ocean quahogs, lobsters, flounder, monkfish, spot, croakers, trout, drum, striped bass, sharks, sea bass, hake, cod, sharks, mackerel, swelling toads and other local fish are landed in Virginia.
Commercial harvests of sea scallops include 2 separate fleets. A large fleet of limited entry boats fish from Newport News and the Hampton Roads region. In other ports, the smaller general category scallopers fish when restrictions allow them to work. Virginia general category scalloping gained popularity in the last part of the 1900's and scalloping saw a huge increase during 2003-2006, due to changes in regulations which allowed a flood of smaller independent boats to enter the fishery. Much of the general category scallop fishing came to a bitter and abrupt halt in 2007 when fisheries managers closed the grounds off Chincoteague Island to sea scallop harvesting.
Virginia is known for its excellent oysters. Virginia sales of wild and farmed product totaled close to 5 million oysters in 2007. While this is far from the millions of bushels of wild oysters that were once harvested, recent advances in oyster mariculture have save the industry and demand is stronger than ever for high quality live oysters for raw consumption.
Hard clams are caught wild or grown in much of Virginia waters. Independent clammers harvest small amount of clams by hand much as it was done 100 years ago. Other fishermen use patent tong rigs to catch wild hard clams in waters of the Chesapeake Bay. Several very successful mariculture operations grow clams from seed up to 1-2" which are prized for steaming or eaten raw. Virginia harvesters sold over 200 million clams in 2007.
The Virginia lobster fishery consists of traps set along the continental shelf slopes, mostly found in depths of 40-100 fathoms(240-600 feet). Markers or "lobster balls" denote each end of a series of 25-30 lobster traps. The groups of traps, known as "pots" are baited and fished after soaking for up to 10 days. The catch is kept in tanks and sold live.
Harvests of blue crabs are an important part of Virginia commercial fishing. Watermen catch crabs with crab pots, trot lines or other methods. Virginia watermen also harvest shedder crabs, known locally as peeler crabs. Commercial crabbers or buyers cultivate the crabs in special floats until they shed. The resulting soft shelled crabs are valuable as a local delicacy or to ship to other markets.
A small red crab fishery exists off the coast of Virginia. The red crab fishery is made up of a very small number of boats that hold permits to catch and process these shellfish. Red crabs are difficult to catch and are said to be harvested only in a very narrow band of depth that centers around 500 fathoms. Red crabs are caught with large traps, similar to those used in the Alaska king crab and Snow crab fisheries.
Fish are harvested in a number of ways. Small boats fish the inshore and coastal waters using gillnets. These small operations catch whatever fish are in the area and are valuable enough to exceed trip expenses. Larger boats trawl the ocean depths for flounder, red hake, sea bass and other fish. A targeted fishery exists for sea bass, where commercial boats set fish traps around shipwrecks or areas of rough bottom.
Related Links: