Posted on 08/15/2013 8:34:33 AM PDT by Kaslin
A HA! You’re the reason my thread text was so tiny! :)
They’re gonna drown!!!!!!
The economic problem is called the tragedy of the commons. Crabs not caught are the commons. Everyone has incentive to convert as many common crabs as they can to their private benefit. And they kill all the crabs, and the resource is gone forever...
Wildlife practices try to reduce the take when the wildlife population goes down. Rather like what happened to the oysters, perhaps.
One thing to do is to convert the commons to private rights. That way how ever many crabs are permitted in a given year, each ‘grandfathered’ crabber would have an equal share, and each would have little incentive to take more, but could ‘sell’ their rights. The most efficient crabber could buy rights and pay a higher price than the less efficient, perhaps compensating some crabbers enough so they would be glad to stop crabbing.
Reality: In any given year there are a certain number of crabs that can be taken without damage to the fishery.
The reality is that each year there are less crabs.
The records show that they are not replenishing themselves
It isn’t that we are taking too many it is that there are less to take.
And then there is the human produced methane pollution tax, or ‘the fart tax.’
One of the things to ask is “Why?”.
Is there another predator or disease that is killing the crab?
Usually the fisheries have an idea of how many can be taken based on the previous years take.
The experts claim that there is an overabundance of Drum coming into the Chesapeake Bay this year and the Drum are eating the small crabs.
The crabbers I have spoken to say there are no small crabs this year, which is bad news for next year.
The DNR claimed at the first of the season that there were small crabs everywhere, but they have disappeared, perhaps it is the Drum, also snakeheads are everywhere in my area. Maybe the snakeheads are eating tem. Whatever the reason it is looking. In August when crabs are usually selling for $40 dollars a bushel none can be found at $150 a bushel.
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