THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 15, 1995 TAG: 9504150297
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: TYNER LENGTH: Long : 104 lines
Herbert Byrum stopped fishing for herring Friday.
After hauling the fish from the Chowan River for 30 springs, the fifth-generation waterman pulled his nets up at noon for good this season.
Never before has he called it quits in April - and he didn't want to Friday, either.
The thin, silver-scaled fish had just begun showing up in droves this week. Byrum and his brother caught 18,000 pounds on Monday. They called catches the biggest in 15 years.
``Looks like they're finally coming back,'' Byrum said, staring at the writhing, flat fish that filled the bottom of his wooden boat at sunrise. ``These are the biggest I've seen in a long time. They'll stick around now 'til late May, or so. But we can't be catching them any more.''
At midnight Friday, state officials closed the commercial herring season. State officials said they closed the commercial industry because herring need help. Landings have dropped since the early 1980s, and fish appear to be getting smaller.
North Carolina hasn't shortened the season since 1958. Then, it was shut down in mid-May.
Friday's closure - just five days into the annual run - marks the end of an era for many Edenton-area families. The few fishermen left are saying that they may never cast their nets again.
``I don't like it a bit. It's not right to take a man's work, much less his food, from him,'' said ``Big'' John Rountree, a 68-year-old Chowan County native who was waiting to buy herring from the Byrum brothers when they docked at 10 a.m. Friday.
At least a dozen others waited for what might be the last catch to come in.
``Like most folk 'round here, I was born and raised on salted herring and bread. Hang 'em outside and let the sun dry 'em . . . mmm mmm. Eat 'em all year.''
Rountree had hoped to buy 500 herring - enough, he said, to supply his family year-round. Since it was the last day of the season, he knew he'd better stock up. But the Byrums didn't have enough herring. They could spare only 100 fish. Rountree would have to scale back his consumption.
``This won't feed me and the wife six months,'' said Rountree, a truck driver. ``Those state people are wrong, what they're doing to this community. We depend on this river for work and food. We depend on the herring.''
Some members of the state Marine Fisheries Commission contended that if watermen were allowed to continue catching herring even as late as May 1 - four weeks before the season traditionally slows - the populations would be irreparably harmed.
April 15 was ``a compromise closure date,'' said Division of Marine Fisheries spokesman Fentress ``Red'' Munden.
Seafood dealer Linnie Perry, who sits on the 17-member commission, said the law closing herring season passed by only one vote. Because Perry buys herring for his Colerain fish house, he said, he abstained from the tally.
``This used to be the biggest industry around. In 1969, we bought 13 million pounds of herring from these docks alone,'' said Perry, co-owner of Perry-Wynn's Fish Co. Perry purchased more than 500 pounds of herring from the Byrum brothers Friday for 20 cents per pound. He said he could have sold tons more than they caught.
``The demand for herring has remained fairly steady for the past 10 years. But this year, I'll have to import 800,000 pounds from Canada just to fill my orders,'' Perry said. ``I'll be lucky to get 150,000 pounds of herring here. It's a great year, too. But no one's fishing because it's just not profitable any more. They shut 'em down before the fish really even got here this year. Should've gone until May 1 and studied what happened before closing them down altogether.''
Perry sells herring across the East Coast, from Philadelphia through Georgia. Salted and cut, it retails for about $1.80 per pound. North Carolina is one of the country's largest herring producers.
It is the only state that has a short season.
``We'll lose $15,000 by not fishing this year. That money'll go to import herring from somewhere else,'' said Byrum, who hauls 24 Chowan River pound nets - 300 yards of seine. ``The fish are biggerthis year than before, too. That shows they're coming back. Last year, it took five fish to make a pound; this year, it only takes three.''
Along the Chowan River, watermen blame pollution from paper mills and other effluence for causing declines in fish stocks. State biologists cite three other factors: dam construction, channeling of swamps and creeks, and loss of spawning grounds because of development.
But the fishermen - and fish eaters - are paying the price. Many fishermen are having to find other work.
``Used to be hundreds of people, almost everyone around, made their living herring fishing,'' Perry said. ``Now, I buy fish from four local families.''
``I'm concerned with the death of this historic industry and with the economic hardships it's causing the people on this river,'' Perry said. ``I'm worried about how we'll prove the populations are back up if they shut us down before the season even starts.'' MEMO: HERRING FESTIVAL
Despite the state's shortened commercial herring season, Jamesville
will still hold its 50th annual Herring Festival on Monday. Crafts,
rides and, of course, herring will be featured. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by DREW C. WILSON, Staff
Jimmy Wiggins, 45, of Hobbsville, left, and Herbert Byrum, 50, of
Tyner, empty a herring net on the Chowan River Friday, the last day
to fish. The state ended the season early to try to save the
fishery.
by CNB