NEWPORT NEWS (AP) -- With Virginia expected to enact more restrictions on the harvest of blue crabs, preliminary discussions have been held on providing state jobs to watermen hit hardest by the new limits.

Officials on Monday described the idea as in its infancy, and said it is aimed primarily at watermen on Tangier Island, which depends heavily on the harvest of blue crabs from Chesapeake Bay waters.

"This is a very beginning discussion as to whether something can be done, or whether something should be done," said John Bull, spokesman for the Virginia Marine Resources Commission.

Tuesday, the commission will vote on measures that would drastically limit the time that Tangier watermen and other crabbers could spend on the water.

Commission staff is recommending closing the Dec. 1 to March 31 crab-dredging season entirely and ending one month early the March 17 to Nov. 30 crab-potting season.

The commission and officials of the Department of Natural Resources have been discussing the idea of providing state jobs for crabbers left without a livelihood by the new limits, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Saturday.

State-sponsored work might include building and replenishing the bay's depleted oyster reefs or planting sea grass beds.

While acknowledging legal or budgetary roadblocks could stop the plan in its tracks, Secretary of Natural Resources L. Preston Bryant Jr. said "we have a responsibility to those hurt" by the regulations.

In an interview Monday, Bryant said the "very preliminary" discussions involve assessing the impact on watermen, an examination of budget appropriations and language, and a review of possible jobs.

Crabs are the single greatest resource available to bay watermen. The catch supported a $125 million crabbing industry in Virginia and Maryland last year.

Scientists have determined that the bay's crab population has been overfished seven out of the past 10 years. Estimates place the bay's crab population this past winter at 120 million crabs, a 70 percent drop since the early 1990s.

Last year, about 1,500 people in Virginia held commercial licenses to harvest crabs, but Bryant said only about half that number actively work the waters.

In 1990, before the crab population began to shrink, 3,045 harvesters were licensed.

Ken Smith, vice president of the Virginia Watermen's Association, said watermen primarily have been interested in pursuing a class action lawsuit to speed the cleanup of the bay.

As for the state jobs for watermen, he said, "I think anything you hear right now is just being floated out there."

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)