THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 21, 1994 TAG: 9410210650
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
After four days of twisting the arms of fellow delegates, North Carolina fisheries regulators succeeded on Thursday in seeking a compromise that would let sports anglers on North Carolina's Outer Banks continue to catch summer flounder through the end of the year.
Sports anglers, who traditionally travel to Hatteras in the late fall for summer flounder will get a few extra weeks to fish this year thanks to action Thursday by a compact of Atlantic Coast fisheries regulators in Delaware.
State fisheries regulators convinced the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to delay implementing its management plan for sports catches of the popular fish until 1995 - a move that will, in effect, extend the season for recreational anglers to catch the popular food fish beyond the planned Oct. 31 deadline until Dec. 31.
The change will give state fisheries regulators time to develop alternatives to a late fall closure, said Robert V. Lucas, chairman of the state Marine Fisheries Commission and a member of the ASMFC flounder management board.
It's also a move, Lucas said, that will benefit not only the sports fishermen but the tackle shops and fishing piers who cater to the fishermen who flock to the waters on the southern end of Hatteras Island, where summer flounder concentrate in the late fall and early winter.
``The ultimate goal was to keep people fishing in November and December,'' Lucas said in an interview from the ASMFC meeting in Rehobeth Beach, Del. ``North Carolina is the only state where there is a significant flounder fishery after Oct. 31.
``And it gives us a good lengthy period in 1995 to ask for changes in the plan,'' he said.
In adopting the compromise, the ASMFC and North Carolina avoided a confrontation that could have led the state Marine Fisheries Commission to defy ASMFC rules and possibly lead to sanctions against the state by the compact.
Earlier in the week, it looked like North Carolina's efforts to extend the summer flounder season were doomed when one ASMFC panel refused, in a split vote, to extend the season.
But after that vote, Lucas, a lawyer from Selma, approached members of a second ASMFC panel with a compromise to delay the implementation of the plan until 1995 in exchange for a reduction in the daily limit from eight to six of the summer flounder catch.
From Monday night until the ASMFC panel met Thursday morning, Lucas lobbied for the change, which eventually was approved without a dissenting vote by the committee, according to one account.
``To come up here and get the other states to go along with you is no easy task,'' Lucas said.
Under the compact's management plan for summer flounder, sports anglers were required this year to lower their catch by 40 percent in order to reduce the number of flounder being caught and killed in ocean waters.
The ASMFC also imposed regional targets for reduction in recreational summer flounder catch that range from 35 percent for northern states from Delaware to New York, to 46 percent for the New England states and 68 percent for Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina.
To that end, North Carolina fisheries regulators imposed restrictions on the size and number of summer flounder that sports anglers were allowed to catch and keep. This year, sports anglers were limited in their catch to eight flounder of no less than 14 inches per day in a season that ran from May 1 to Oct. 31.
Division of Marine Fisheries statistics show that the size and bag limits and seasonal restrictions currently in place meet the 68 percent reduction requirements. By extending the season through December, North Carolina's summer flounder sports catch would comply with and possibly exceed the 40 percent coastwide reduction target, according to state biologists. by CNB