THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 23, 1994 TAG: 9410230058
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: GREENVILLE LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines
Anglers throughout eastern North Carolina sent a clear message to fisheries regulators last week - if the state requires a license for coastal sports anglers, it should make sure that money raised is used to help coastal fishing.
``It's clear that nobody's interested in this unless all the money created from it is dedicated back to the fishery resource,'' said Michael K. Orbach, a professor at Duke University Marine Laboratory in Beaufort.
Orbach is the chairman of a committee studying the proposed salt water license, who presided at public meetings on the proposal throughout eastern North Carolina last week.
``We don't want this money to be eaten up by bureaucracy and administration,'' he said after meeting with eastern anglers Tuesday night in Greenville. Many sports fishermen from the region agreed with sports anglers Frank Martin of Wilson and Jim Tavasso of Winterville, who attended the Greenville meeting.
``I'm for it as a means to an end,'' Martin said. ``This has got to lead to a brighter day for the recreational fisherman and the commercial fisherman.'' Martin said the money raised from license sales would give recreational fishermen more clout in managing the coastal fisheries.
Tavasso agreed: ``Fifteen dollars is a small price to pay when most of us have already invested thousands of dollars in fishing trips. You need accurate numbers so that you will know what you have.
``Please don't wait,'' Tavasso said. ``Let's get on with it.''
But other coastal anglers - particularly those from the northern and central coasts - were opposed to state efforts to charge to fish in saltwater.
Opponents at public meetings in Morehead City and Manteo - where many livelihoods depend on the states' fishery and tourism industries - balked at the suggestion of another regulation and another tax, and railed against state lawmakers who favor the proposal.
While an overwhelming majority of those who spoke at meetings in Greenville and Wilmington favored a license, the proposal faced more vocal opposition at meetings in Manteo and Morehead City.
On Monday, an estimated 60 percent of those in a crowd of about 150 people attending a meeting in Manteo opposed the license, and in Morehead City on Thursday, many of those in a crowd of about 200 people said the license was just another tax.
Opponents of the plan fear that tourism along North Carolina's coast will drop if the state institutes a saltwater fishing license because fishermen will decide to vacation in states without such a license or where license fees are lower.
They also say the state's pier and charter boat owners will face added financial burdens under the plan.
Commercial fishermen have questioned whether the state is acting fairly in promoting sports fishing at a time when it has imposed a moratorium on commercial license sales. Some contend the saltwater fishing license is a means of enhancing the influence of sports fishermen at their expense.
Darlene Carawan of Pamlico County, wife of a commercial fisherman and a member of that county's auxiliary chapter of the N.C. Fisheries Association, was one of three members of the group who traveled to Greenville to oppose the license.
``As a commercial fishing person, I have had to have a license every year that I can remember,'' she said. ``What has it done to enhance commercial fishing?''
But Senate leader Marc Basnight, who has taken the lead among coastal legislators in promoting the saltwater fishing license and who attended Monday's meeting in Manteo, said concerns by license opponents don't erase the need for better fisheries data, fisheries habitat restoration and other improvements to coastal fisheries.
``People who spoke realized there was a need for scientific data collection and said the data we were using was flawed,'' Basnight, D-Dare, said Friday in Manteo. Opposition to the license ``doesn't stop the fact that you need better data collection and you need to improve the resource.''
Under the study committee's proposal, sports anglers would pay either $5 per week, $15 each year or $250 for a lifetime license in order to fish in the state's coastal waters. Owners of fishing piers and charter boats can exempt their patrons from the license if they buy fishing licenses whose fees will be based on the length of the pier and the length of the boat, under the committee plan. Exemptions would be made for children under 16. Subsistence fishermen and the elderly and handicapped or disabled fishermen would pay a reduced one-time license fee, under the committee's plan.
Also under the committee's plan, money raised by the license would be used to enhance recreational fishing, improve boating and beach access, and construct submerged reefs and other fisheries programs.
But despite support from the state's top fisheries regulators and some of its most powerful lawmakers, before it becomes law the proposal faces several hurdles: Continued scrutiny by the public at meetings next week, a final vote by the study committee, action by the state Marine Fisheries Commission in December and action by the General Assembly.
Ultimately the fate of a saltwater fishing license will depend on the proposal which is forwarded to the legislature by the commission and the study committee, Basnight said. by CNB