THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 14, 1994 TAG: 9408140150
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BOB HUTCHINSON
LENGTH: Long : 136 lines
Maybe someday the folks at the Virginia Marine Resources Commission will understand that their job is the stewardship of public resources and not regulation of the seafood industry.
A recent fiasco involving pound-net fishing should provide the state agency with a good lesson.
To protect the beleaguered gray trout, the agency came up with a plan ordering restraints on all trout fishermen, including a 14-inch minimum size and a 10-fish bag limit for rod-and-reel fishermen.
The regulation gave pound-netters the option of either not keeping any trout between Aug. 1 and Sept. 9 or giving up some of their fishing sites if they had two or more licensed nets.
The glitch was that netters who elected to abandon their sites were provided with a window of opportunity for obtaining additional licenses, which they could give up instead of turning in their old licenses and leaving the sites. That way, they could keep fishing just as before.
Some pound-net fishermen jumped on the opportunity like a third baseman going for a pop foul.
Normally, such regulations either go into effect on the day they are adopted or, at the latest, the first day of the following month. But this time, the agency delayed the effective date for a week, from July 29 until Aug. 5, to allow two pound-netters, who usually do not license their three rigs until the middle of summer, time to get their 1994 licenses. These netters primarily target fall-run flounder.
But several other netters either realized or were told of the loophole. As a result, about 35 new licenses were issued before the deadline.
The commission staff now is begging the netters to turn in the new licenses voluntarily or face the possibility that the federal government will step in and ban all pound-net fishing for gray trout in Virginia for the remainder of 1994.
Virginia and other East Coast states have agreed to reduce the gray trout catch by 19 percent this year and by an additional 25 percent in 1995. Any violation could bring federal closure.
You can't blame the fishermen. They were trying to protect their livelihood. But you can blame the agency for trying to accommodate two pound-netters. It's yet another case of fishery management for economics rather than stewardship of a public resource.
Besides, if the agency wants to help fishermen, it should look at the long-range picture, the future of commercial fishing for trout, and not at today, as it so often does.
The ironic part of the fiasco is that, unknown to most of the agency's staff, the netters they were trying to help had purchased their licenses before the regulation was finalized. The paper work just had not reached the commission's Newport News headquarters.
Anyway, the debacle should be a good lesson for the agency. The concern here is that it probably will not be.
TOURNEY TIME: Two of the year's biggest local saltwater fishing tournaments are planned over the next few weeks.
Between 50 and 60 boats are expected for the annual Virginia Beach Marlin Tournament over the Labor Day weekend. The contest is sponsored by the Cape Henry Billfish Club.
The fourth annual ACCA Anglers Club Challenge will be staged the following weekend, hosted by the Atlantic Coast Conservation Association.
The marlin tournament will be headquartered on Rudee Inlet, with boats allowed to fish any two days of their crew's choice between Sept. 2 and 4. For billfish, it will be strictly a release event. But awards will be made for the largest tuna, wahoo and dolphin.
You can get additional details from Tom Langley at 473-2000.
The Anglers Club Challenge will be open to all Virginia fishing clubs and will be headquartered at the Marina at Marina Shores in Virginia Beach. Both inshore and offshore species will be eligible. Details: Randy Morton, 420-5170.
GREAT BOOKS: Books on outdoor subjects sometimes seem to be more plentiful than mosquitoes, and a lot are not very good.
But occasionally an exception comes along. In this case, it's not one, but two.
The first, simply titled ``Whitetails,'' was done by nationally known outdoor personalities Erwin and Peggy Bauer.
The photography is so outstanding that the 120 color shots alone would be worth the $35 cost of the 160-page book. But the text is fascinating, educational and darn good reading.
It's available in bookstores or from Voyageur Press by calling 1-800-888-9653.
The other book, ``Fluke Fishing,'' is a little less professional in appearance but crammed with advice for catching one of the East Coast's most popular fish, the summer flounder.
It's a collection of articles from The Fisherman magazine, published at 1620 Beaver Dam Road, Point Pleasant, N.J., 08742. Available only in paperback, it sells for $8.95, plus $2.50 shipping and handling. It can be ordered by calling 1-800-352-4868.
DEER HUNTS: Applications are being accepted for deer hunts this fall on False Cape State Park in Virginia Beach and the Mason Neck National Wildlife Management Area in the Northern Neck.
Feral hogs also will be legal game at False Cape, south of Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge and accessible only by boat or by bus service through the refuge.
Hunting dates will be Oct. 1 and Oct. 3-8, with 30 hunters selected through a random drawing for each day. You can get details by calling the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries at 1-367-1000.
The Mason Neck hunt will be Nov. 20-21, Nov. 25 and Dec. 12-13. Details may be obtained from J.F. Milton at (703) 690-1297.
BEAR STUDY: State wildlife biologists have started a study of the black bear population on the sprawling George Washington and Thomas Jefferson national forests in Western Virginia.
The study is expected to take five to eight years, according to Dennis Martin, a bear specialist with the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
Martin and other biologists hope to trap about 50 bears during the next three months and release them with radio-transmitter collars.
``We hope to learn a lot about our bear population,'' Martin said. He estimated Virginia's bruin population at 3,500 and growing, with most of the animals west of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
SHORT CASTS: Joe Costner of Virginia Beach may have become the first individual angler to score a billfish ``grand slam'' off Virginia. Fishing on the Pursuer on Wednesday, Costner released a blue marlin, a white marlin and a sailfish. The trip also produced two other blue-marlin releases. There is no documentation with the Virginia Salt Water Fishing Tournament that any angler previously released all three popular billfish in a single day. ... Thirty people died in boating accidents in North Carolina in 1993, according to the state's Wildlife Resources Commission. That's nine more than in 1993 and the first increase in three years. ... Last year, Virginia's Hunters for the Hungry program donated more than 70,000 pounds of venison to the needy. This year, the program's goal is 100,000 pounds. You can help by donating $1 to the program when you buy your hunting license. Sales agents have special contribution envelopes available. by CNB