THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 3, 1996 TAG: 9611030172
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C15 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BOB HUTCHINSON
LENGTH: 133 lines
Anglers will have to wait until Nov. 26 to learn the dates for Virginia's 1997 recreational season on striped bass.
Those dates were to have been set at Tuesday's meeting of the board of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. But the decision was delayed because the board wants to take a look at a controversial plan for the commercial-fishing season on stripers.
That plan is called ``Indivdual Transferable Quota. What it means is that a commercial fisherman issued striped bass tags by the agency would be allowed to sell those tags to other commercial fishermen.
Commercial fishermen now are limited to keeping and selling only as many rockfish as they are issued identifying tags by the state.
The tag program originated as a means of limiting the catch after stripers became so scarce that all fishing for them was banned in state waters in 1983. The season was not reopened until 1990.
Now, with the fishery officially declared recovered, more tags will become available as restrictions on the catch are eased.
Only 450 commercial fishermen now hold tags and permits to catch stripers, with another 500 or so on a waiting list. So the commission faces a quandry:
As the commercial quota climbs, does the agency continue to limit the number of fishermen but allow them to catch more fish? Or does it increase the catch by increasing the number of fishermen?
The transferable quotas, although controversial, are the ``next generation of management tools that we will use,'' Jack Travelstead, the head of the agency's fishery management division, told the board Tuesday. ``If the plan is approved,'' commercial fishermen will be able to transfer, buy, trade or sell their tags.
``It's a bit controversial,'' Travelstead said, ``but I really believe we'll be seeing a lot of this at the state level in the future. It's already happening on the federal level.''
So the commission voted Tuesday to send the entire 17-page proposal for the 1997 striper season, commercial and recreational, back for additional scrutiny.
Proposals (read VMRC staff recommendations) for the recreational season include:
Trophy season, Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries and coastal waters: May 1-15, a one-fish possession limit, a 32-inch minimum, no maximum, mandatory catch reporting to commission.
Spring season, Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries: May 16-June 15, two-fish possession limit, 18-inch minimum, 28-inch maximum.
Coastal season, ocean waters only: Jan. 1-March 31 and May 16-Dec. 31, two-fish possession limit, 28-inch minimum, no maximum.
Fall season, Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries: Oct. 17-Dec. 31, two-fish possession limit, 18-inch minimum, no maximum.
The commission's Nov. 26 meeting will begin at 9:30 a.m., with stripers and other fishery items discussed at noon. The meeting will be at VMRC headquarters, 2600 Washington Ave., Newport News.
Meanwhile, the feeling here is that transferable quotas are an idea whose time has come. Better that a few legitimate commercial fishermen be allowed to earn a decent amount of money than to open the fishery to every Tom, Dick and Harry.
FUNDS APPROVED: There soon may be a safe, modern boat-launching facility at Kiptopeke State Park, near the north end of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.
The VMRC on Tuesday approved $325,000 for the $700,000 project, with the remainder to come from matching state bonds, plus $50,000 from the Division of Parks.
However, a $144,000 appropriation for construction of a fishing pier at Windmill Point on the Rappahannock River in Lancaster County was delayed. A final decision on that project also will be made following a public hearing at the commission's November meeting.
Financing for each project would come from the license fund generated by Virginia recreational fishing license.
SURF EVENT: Perhaps the biggest surf-fishing contest on the East Coast starts Wednesday evening when 100 teams gather at Buxton-on-Hatteras for the 39th annual Cape Hatteras Invitational.
The six-person teams will come from several East Coast states and will compete Thursday and Friday, with an individual contest, open to anyone, set for Saturday.
The field includes the defending champs, the Rising Tides of Nags Head, as well as the top 1995 female squad, the Mer-Mullets of Hatteras.
The contest is hosted by the Cape Hatteras Anglers Club.
TOP GUNS: A 23-point buck killed in Cumberland County by Jimmy Didmond was the highest scorer at 236 1/16 points in the recent Virginia Big Game Contest.
Scoring involves a complicated set of measurements established by the national Boone and Crockett Club.
In the black powder category, the winner was a 12-pointer which scored 235 14/16 points. It was killed in Henry County by Tony Meade.
Richard Mull Jr. took the turkey title with a gobbler killed in Surry County, scoring 79 10/16 points, while the top black bear was killed in Rockingham County by Charles G. Carter and scored 29 1/16 points.
MORE DUCKS: The news for duck hunters keeps getting better and better.
Instead of a fall migration of 88 million birds, as earlier predicted, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service now says 89.5 million will make the flight. That would make it the greatest migration since the agency began keeping records in 1970.
Officials credit the increase to a break in a prolonged drought in the Canadian prairie provinces, coupled with reclamation of wetlands for vital breeding grounds.
Still, unless more miracles happen, it looks as though the year-2000 migration will fall short of the government's goal of 100 million.
Some problem birds remain, including pintail, widgeon and scaup. Numbers for these once-abundant species are well below established 1996 goals.
Meanwhile, Ducks Unlimited recently celebrated the one billionth dollar its supporters have raised since the organization was founded in 1937. The international waterfowl conservation organization deserves much of the credit for the population turnaround.
TAGGING TOGS: Fishery scientist and officials have asked for help from anglers in trying to get a handle on the Virginia tautog catch.
The result could be that Virginia is exempted from a plan that could put limits on the rod-and-reel catch of these tasty dwellers of wrecks and reefs.
``We've distributed a lot of forms to marinas and tackle shops,'' said Geoff White of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, conducting the study. ``We hope fishermen will really cooperate. It's important.''
You can get details from White at (804) 642-7352.
SHORT CASTS: The North Carolina Beach Buggy Association and National Park Service on Nov. 16 will launch the year's third ``Operation Beach Respect'' cleanup of Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Association volunteers will be handing out plastic bags to seashore beach visitors and asking them to retrieve any trash they see. For details, contact Jim Keene in Franklin at (804) 562-2554. . . . Woo Daves of Spring Grove finished 20th and won $4,000 and David Dudley of Lynchburg was 22nd and earned $3,000 in the recent Bassmaster Tennessee Top 100 largemouth contest on Old Hickory Lake. Rick Morris of Virginia Beach finished 44th and out of the money. Chad Brauer of Camdenton, Mo., took the $47,000 top prize. . . . The TV show ``Saltwater Fishing With Dr. Jim'' will feature an hourlong special on the Super September winners. The event featured a series of six Hampton Roads fishing tournaments. It will air on cable TV's Home Team Sports channel at 2 p.m. Saturday. . . . Whitney Jones of Kitty Hawk, operator of Whitney's Tackle Shop, has taken the speckled trout lead in the annual North Carolina Salt Water Fishing Tournament with an 8-pound, 2-ounce fish caught in the surf. . . . A free saltwater fly-fishing seminar will be offered at 7 p.m. Tuesday at E&B Discount Marine, 5616 Virginia Beach Blvd, in Norfolk. For details, call Brian Phillips at 466-1826. . . . The Use Less Stuff organization estimates that the holiday season's extra shopping, wrapping, decorations and packaging will add a million pounds to the nation's trash dumps. by CNB