RESOURCES AND ECONOMICS 
by 
Dr. Herbert M. Austin 
Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences 
Dr. Austin: This is one of those papers that has a single 
author from one Chesapeake Bay state, the State of Virginia, but 
I want to reassure my friends from the north that I have talked 
to people in the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) 
in preparing my talk. 
Inevitably, when we speak of the Chesapeake Bay the conver¬ 
sation turns to the resources, their issues, status, and manage¬ 
ment. More than we, they're the inhabitants of the Bay and 
we're the stewards. We must consider their needs above our own. 
The Issues 
Despite our earlier State, Federal, and Congressional ef¬ 
forts, it wasn't until the EPA Bay Report was released in 1983 
that there was a focused concern, and a public awareness of the 
Bay and its problems. These efforts in the winter of 1983, 
culminated with the Governors' Conference. The 1984 General 
Assemblies of the Bay States had a clear mandate of the need for 
political and legislative reforms and the resources needed to 
fulfill them. 
Fisheries resource management has probably made more pro¬ 
gress in the last 2 years than we have in the last 2 decades. 
In spite of the mandates, reforms, initiatives, and policy 
statements, biological cycles in the Bay occur more slowly than 
political cycles, and the public is impatient. We're trying to 
rectify more than 50 to a 100 years of neglect, and activities 
in the area of resource management are under scrutiny, and 
unresolved issues still await asking. 
What are the resources? I shall address several; each as a 
fishery. By definition, a fishery is the resource and the 
harvester. We can't separate them. 
The recreational component ranges from the child on the dock 
to the more sophisticated, high-speed boats capable of blue 
water fishing. Both the child on the dock and the sophisticated 
fisherman are interested in striped bass, bluefish, weakfish, 
spot, croaker, and flounder. 
The commercial fishery ranges from a single man in a small 
boat on a tributary or creek to the pound net on major tributar¬ 
ies of the Bay to the multi-million dollar menhaden fishery. 
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