CRAB TAGGING STUDY= CASH FOR TAGS
CRAB TAGGING STUDY
WINCHESTER BAY:
The Oregon Wave Energy Trust in partnership with Oregon Sea Grant are conducting a study on Dungeness crabs. 3,000 legal sized male crabs were tagged in October and November of 2009. We need your help in returning the tags, so we can complete the study. The location of the dump sites are:
South Site: 43.42.000N 124.15.000W
ProJ Site: 43.45.301N 124.14.133W
North Site. 43.48.000N 124.13.800W
Crabbing in the ocean out of Winchester Bay? The crabs were tagged and returned to the ocean to the north and south of Winchester Bay. The CRAB TAGGING STUDY provides recreational crabbers opportunity and fun while crabbing.
Return the tag to us and receive $20. We will also hold a drawing for $1,000 at the end of the commercial Dungeness crab season. Return a tag with the required information: Remove it from the crab, write down the location and depth the crab was found, the tag number, your name, address, and phone number. Mail this information and the tag to: Oregon Dungeness Crab Study, 29 SE 2nd Street , Newport, OR 97365If you have questions please call 541-574-6537 ext. 18.
My friends, Advid clam digger and crabber, Jerry Lynch writes in response to the Crab Tagging Study:
” The CRAB TAGGING STUDY provides recreational crabbers opportunity and fun while crabbing. ”
Oh really! hmmmnnnn. Then why is there a mysterious relationship between the end of the program tied to the “end of the commercial crab season” ????? I just do not trust these boys anymore. Sorry to be so skeptical, but I have a tendancy to call crooks, crooks when I smell ‘em.
-Jerry”
Jerry: You are probably right. There is a lot of resistance to the wave energy program by the commercial fishing industry. I agree there is a big public relation push to force wave energy upon us. Remember, money is on the flip side of Going Green. All you have to do is look at the history of the wind energy stocks to see a window to the future. Once wave energy is up and running is oil and gas drilling in addition to mining the ocean floor next? I do not think people realize the impact of the magnitude of placing thousands of buoy generators in the ocean. Think of the impact the presence of the generators will have on salmon fishing both commercial and recreational outside of Winchester Bay. More coho salmon are taken there than any other area of the Oregon Coast. There will be large areas of the ocean where you can kiss commercial crabbing or trolling for salmon goodbye. This is my initial take on it. BUT, the crabs have been tagged; so why not take advantage of their program designed to benefit commercial crabbers. You know that the commercial crabbers out of Winchester Bay are looking for a payday by scooping up as many of the tagged crabs as possible. I know that I would just love to put 10 or 12 tagged crabs in my ice chest. Why do we need a crab tagging program? Crabs associate with sandy bottom substrate and just love eel grass beds. Are the proponents of wave energy looking for sandy areas of the ocean floor where there are no crabs so they can justify placing the generators there? Who’s funding the tagging program? Have the proponents considered the effects of unintended consequences? With all of the challenging issues facing society regarding the development of our natural resources with along the Oregon Coast the CDAO can do little but comment on them. At times commenting on an issue is enough to stir the public conscience. Personally, it is particular difficult for me not to become involved with these issues. I have not kept up the wave energy program. I am sure those who are involved with the issue of wave energy have answers to some of my questions. It is best that the CDAO remain focused on the goals of our agenda. However, I would just love to see a recreational crabber bag the winning crab just inside the mouth of Winchester Bay. As always good digging, Bill
These tags are used to collect information which will almost assuredly be used to the detriment of the commercial crab fishery. Where we catch these crabs is proprietary information and we’re not giving that away for a whopping $20. Nice try schmucks. Try adding a digit or two onto that figure and we may talk. Untill then, they are going in the garbage.
DON’T TURN IN THESE TAGS !!!!!!!!
Greetings Jerry, Bill and others who are interested. I work for Oregon Sea Grant and am helping to coordinate the crab tagging project. I see several questions and comments in your blog that I thought needed to be addressed; I do not want my comments to inspire arguments or conspiracy theories, so I am just going to respond to the things that I have control over, information that I know is correct, and then put some other resources out there for you to seek out the rest of the information you need. So here goes…
The crab tagging was designed mostly for commercial crabbers to pick up the tagged crabs, because the sites where the crabs were tagged and the time of the taggings corresponded with when and where the commercial fleet would be. Recreational fishermen are more than welcome to participate in the study! The comment about the mysterious timeline of the study ending near the commercial crabbing season, actually has more to do with crabs molting than the end of the commercial crabbing season. The tags are wrapped around the back leg of the crab, they will come off with the shell when the crabs molt. This means that the window of opportunity we have to collect tagged crabs is NOW to when the crabs molt, which is mostly likely spring to early summer. The ending of the commercial crabbing season, was just a coincidently good date, that seemed ideal to wrap up the project, both from an administrative perspective and from a crab molting perspective (the crabs should have all molted by then).
I would very much appreciate not being called a crook, I am involved in this project so that folks can be aware of the project and hopefully return the tags. I have a hard time understanding how that is a bad thing.
Why do we need a crab tagging program? The answer is because we have to. This is a baseline study and it is required by both state and federal permits. This is not a choice, this is something that has to be done. The Oregon Wave Energy Trust is paying for the study. Many of the questions you ask about the wave Energy program, can be best addressed by either the Oregon Wave Energy Trust or Ocean Power Technologies (which has two proposed projects in the Reedsport and Coos Bay area). There is also another group, the Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center, which is starting to look at a lot of the environmental questions you proposed.
I do appreciate the information about this study being put up on this website, like I said, I’d love to see recreational fishermen participate, it just broadens our tag recapture rate even further. If you have more questions about the project, please contact me.
Good Morning Kathy, Jerry’s comment about crooks was not a personal comment about anyone’s character but was meant to define his level of skepticism and lack of faith in Oregon’s governmental agencies to manage and protect OUR natural resources.
The list of Oregon’s failures to manage and protect OUR natural resources is long. But, the desire to create marine reserves because Oregon has failed to manage the harvest of offshore and nearshore fish stocks within acceptable limits rates right near the top of the list. The discharge of unacceptable levels of sediment into our rivers and ultimately into Oregon’s Bays because the buffer widths between our rivers and streams and adjacent clear cuts are grossly inadequate is another. Using the ocean as a toilet by discharging nutrient enriched effluent from our waste water treatment plants is the most egregious affront that leads the list of our failures. So Jerry’s comment echos the lack of confidence that a large proportion of coastal residents have in the agencies we entrust to manage OUR natural resources.
It is particularly troubling to see that the Oregon Wave Energy Trust (or whoever) is going forward with the permit process to place the wave energy buoys in ocean before addressing the resource and social issues associated with the project.
I thought I would mention some of the issues that come to mind: Will the public be denied access to large areas of the ocean to protect the generators within the area the wave energy farms? How will anchoring thousands of wave energy generators to the sandy sea floor affect the stability of the sand? Will placing the wave energy anchors disrupt the life cycle of the marine species dependent on sandy substrate for their survival? Will the presence of the anchoring structure attract other marine species that will have a negative influence on the marine species that have adapted to the sandy substrate? How will the presence of electrical generators affect migrating salmon? Is the placement of the wave generators a threat to the local coastal economy?
To the Crabby Crabber, the ocean does not belong to any one individual or group of individuals. It and everything in it from the high tide line to 200 miles is ours. Ownership and access rights are the whole point of this conversation. If you decide against redeeming the crab tags why not donate the tags along with the catch information to your local animal shelter. I am sure they would put the donation to good use. Thanks, Bill Lackner