THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 27, 1995 TAG: 9501270629
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
Torn drop nets and crushed crab pots can continue to catch seafood if they are recycled through North Carolina's first commercial fishing-gear clean-up program.
The two-week effort involves thousands of watermen from Corolla through Sneads Ferry.
The recycling campaign was begun this week by Sea Grant of N.C. State University, the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, the state Office of Waste Reduction and groups of commercial fishermen across North Carolina's coast.
If it is successful, organizers say, the commercial fishing gear cleanup could become an annual event.
``It was begun on the West Coast several years ago, and we decided to try it here this year,'' Sea Grant Area Marine Specialist Wayne Wescott said from his office at the Roanoke Island Aquarium.
``A lot of these watermen have been in the business for 20 or 30 years. No one's ever collected their commercial gear before. And it really tends to accumulate. It piles up at people's homes, on docks and even gets discarded in the water.
``This is a recycling effort to get rid of some of that unwanted or unusable gear,'' Wescott said. ``But it's also a really conscientious effort on the part of the watermen to clean up their environment. Some groups are going out there to recover abandoned crab pots from the sounds and streams. So far the response has been great - much greater than we'd ever anticipated.''
At 17 collection sites across the coast, 12- by 20-foot Dumpsters are waiting to accept discarded commercial fishing gear. The Dumpsters are open 24 hours a day.
Gear will be collected Feb. 5. Trawl nets will be baled and shipped to a Virginia recycling center. Uncoated metal crab pots will be reworked and reused.
Some collection-site managers already have received calls about fish-house managers who plan to bring tractor trailer loads of gear to the Dumpsters.
``Most people around here tend to re-use their nets. They keep repairing them, and save the old ones for patches,'' Sea Grant spokesperson Carla Burgess said from her Raleigh office. ``By the time they get ready to throw them away, they're pretty well all used up. So we don't anticipate getting as many nets.
``But crab pots are a much bigger problem,'' Burgess said. ``They only last one to three years. And about 300,000 are made each year.''
Sea Grant officials estimate that North Carolina crabbers throw away about 250,000 crab pots annually. Many end up in landfills. But with increased tipping fees at the dump sites, getting rid of old gear can become expensive for some commercial fishermen.
Dropping any amount of gear into the Dumpsters is free.
``We got a $41,000 grant for this project from the National Marine Fisheries Service's marine debris removal program,'' Burgess said. ``It's really just a pilot program, to see if the industry and fishing community are interested. We start projects at Sea Grant. If they work well, we hope other groups will take them over.''
Most commercial fishermen in the Albemarle area praised the commercial gear recycling program. But some said the timing could have been better. Watermen generally don't sort through their nets and discard crab pots in the winter, they said.
``Anything anyone can do to keep the mess out of the sounds and marsh is a good idea,'' said Colington fisherman Carson Beasley. ``It's a good idea to collect this stuff. But they should've done it in late spring or early fall. Then we'd've really had a lot to get rid of.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
RECYCLING CLEAN-UP PROGRAM
From now until Feb. 5, watermen can drop off old nets and crab
pots in the state's first commercial fishing gear recycling clean-up
program. Tractor trailers are set up at 17 sites across the coast
and are open 24 hours a day. Drop-off is free. Nets should be
sorted and placed in appropriately marked Dumpsters. Metal crab pots
should be flattened and stacked. Coated crab pots cannot be
accepted. Collection sites are:
BEAUFORT COUNTY: Hopkins Seafood, Belhaven; Etles Henries
Seafood; South Creek
CARTERET COUNTY: Luther Smith & Son Seafood, Atlantic; South
River Seafood, Beaufort; Thomas Seafood, Beaufort
CHOWAN COUNTY: Nixon Seafood, Edenton
CURRITUCK COUNTY: Currituck Crab, Currituck
DARE COUNTY: Colington Crab, Colington; Trinity Seafood, Stumpy
Point; Wanchese Seafood Park, Wanchese
HYDE COUNTY: Johnson Fishery, Engelhard; Jarvis Seafood, Swan
Quarter
ONSLOW COUNTY: New River Net Co., Sneads Ferry
PAMLICO COUNTY: Jack Williams' Crab House, Arapahoe; R.E. Mayo
Co., Inc., Hobucken; Garland Fulcher Seafood Co., Inc., Oriental
TYRRELL COUNTY: State property south of U.S. 64 at the foot of
the Alligator River Bridge
For more information, call Sea Grant at (919) 515-2454.
by CNB