THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 2, 1994 TAG: 9412020575
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SMITHFIELD LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
Commercial fishermen who ply the Atlantic during the winter for weakfish hope the Marine Fisheries Commission will vote Saturday to relax restrictions on the catch.
The commission is scheduled to review a Division of Marine Fisheries plan that restricts the commercial and recreational catch of weakfish that is part of an Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission effort to restore dwindling populations.
The plan increases the size limit and number of weakfish, also known as gray trout, that could be caught by sports anglers. It also bans fly net fishing south of Cape Hatteras during the winter, among other restrictions.
Several commission members asked for the review after North Carolina fisheries regulators unsuccessfully sought ASMFC approval earlier this year for changes in the state plan that would open some offshore waters south of Cape Hatteras to the commercial fly net industry for several weeks during the winter.
An ASMFC committee voted not to change the plan, although its members said at the time that the proposal, forwarded to the ASMFC by state fisheries regulators for the compact's approval, would meet initial reductions in the weakfish catch.
Committee members said they voted against the proposal because it was not submitted by an ASMFC deadline for changes to the plan and, therefore, did not comply with ASMFC procedures.
``To hell with that procedure,'' Jerry Schill, executive director of the N.C. Fisheries Association, a commercial fishing trade group, said in a recent interview after the ASMFC meeting. ``We've got people who have to make a living.''
North Carolina's plan most directly affects the state's fly net fishery, centered in Beaufort and Wanchese, which accounts for about 60 percent of weakfish caught in the state, state fisheries biologists say.
Schill has said these boats will be forced into northern waters, where weakfish are less plentiful, or will be forced out of business.
If the commission modifies the plan, commercial fly net fishermen could use the area this winter, according to DMF officials.
Changes in the state's weakfish plan are just one of the topics to be discussed by the commission at three emergency meetings that will convene Saturday at the end of the panel's scheduled business session.
The commission is also scheduled to review two proclamations recently issued by the division about the state's ocean striped bass fishery and striped bass fishing in Albemarle Sound. by CNB