Tough times on the water

By Richard Kendall

TODDVILLE – By late September, the Hayden family usually have saved enough money saved from the summer months to help them through the leaner times of winter.
“This year, we haven’t been able to save anything, not a dime,” Michele Hayden lamented this past weekend. Her husband, Jimmy, 37, works a waterman, crabbing a trotline during the summer. Michele works with him during the winter, hand tonging and dredging oysters.
“I love oystering,” Mrs. Hayden admitted.
The Haydens were married 4 years ago, in Easton. Each of them brought 2 sons to the marriage. Buddy, 15 and Dylan, 10, are Jimmy’s sons; Brian, 12 and Shane, 8, is Michele’s.
On Sunday afternoon, Mr. Hayden sat aboard his wooden workboat baiting a trotline for Monday morning. The vessel’s name is the Buddy Dylan, after his sons.
There is urgency in their voices when Jimmy and Michele Hayden speak of their situation.
“Everything we use to operate has gone up – it seems some things have doubled in cost since last year,” Mr. Hayden said. “Diesel fuel, bate, upkeep of the boat it’s all up this year. It seems the only thing that hasn’t gone up is what we get for our catch. That hasn’t gone up any.”
“Retail stores are selling a bushel of crabs for $120 to $180,” Mr. Hayden said. “We are getting $40 for a bushel of males and $22 for females. And, this time of the year, about all we are catching is females.”
Michele Hayden believes the economy, crab populations and State regulations are simultaneously bringing an end to the seafood business in Maryland.
“With prices so high for fuel and bate, lower numbers of crabs to begin with and tighter catch limits for watermen, it’s almost impossible to make a living on the water,” she said. “And with watermen getting out of the business because they can’t make a living, sooner or later, there isn’t going to be any crabs, crab dip or any of that.”
Jimmy and Michele Hayden are unsure how they are going to make ends meet this winter.
“We have a mortgage, two truck payments, heat, electric and food to pay for,” Mrs. Hayden figured. “I don’t know how we are going to do it.”
Jimmy Hayden and his brothers Gary and Eddie have been watermen most of their lives.
As children growing up in Crapo, they made extra money helping out aboard the workboat owned by the late Maurice Adams, of Wingate.
“I started going out on the water with him when I was 8,” Mr. Hayden remembered.
“It got in his blood, the water did,” his wife added, “like a poison.”
Other than working for a few years at the Wire Belt Company in Cambridge, Mr. Hayden has remained a waterman.
“I know how to do other work but who is going to hire me,” he asked. “No body wants to hire a waterman because they know that in the spring, we’re going back out on the water.”
Although their children have health insurance, neither of their parents have full health coverage. “That’s the case for most watermen,” Mrs. Hayden explained.
Jimmy and Michele Hayden believe the factor having the worst effect on their livelihood is the catch limit set by the State of Maryland.
“They used our crab reports from the last few years and averaged out what we have been catching,” Mr. Hayden said.
“And then, they limited the daily catch to two-thirds of what had been caught each day,” Mrs. Hayden added. “But, lots of factors play into it that they don’t take into consideration.”
“For instance, 3 years ago, the engine in Jimmy’s boat blew up and he wasn’t catching crabs,” she said. “That affected his average.”
When the limits were first announced, Mr. Hayden was restricted to 5 bushels of crabs a day.
“It takes 3 bushels a day just to pay for expenses: $50 a day for bait, $50 to $80 a day for fuel,” she said. “We appealed and they said they lost Jimmy’s crab reports. Fortunately, we kept copies.”
Their appeal was won and the Mr. Hayden’s daily catch limit was elevated to 15 bushels per day.
“That sounds great but I haven’t been able to catch anywhere near that,” he said.
“Plus, starting this week (Oct. 1), I can only catch 5 bushels of females, that’s it.”
The crab season end Oct. 22.
There are rumors of relief coming but so far, the Haydens have seen nothing tangible.
“We heard that the DNR is going to offer watermen jobs during the winter,” Mrs. Hayden said.
Jobs supposedly include cleaning oyster bars by dragging dredge rigs over the oyster beds and working in state parks by cleaning up or planting trees.
“But, all we have heard is rumors about these jobs; I haven’t seen anything posted on the internet about it.”
Another ray of hope concerns a declaration of assistance for watermen supported by Md. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D)
“But, again, we’ve only heard rumors,” Mrs. Hayden said. “We can’t support our family on rumors.”