                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Saturday, July 1, 1995                 TAG: 9507010467
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER 
                                             LENGTH: Long  :  172 lines

PANEL URGES MORE OYSTER PRODUCTION MEMBERS ALSO WANT TO CONTINUE STATE'S RESTORATION EFFORTS.

A yearlong review of the state's oyster programs has come to an end. And now, a panel of fishermen, scientists and fisheries managers is preparing to recommend substantial changes in the way North Carolina manages and protects its oyster stocks.

The Blue Ribbon Advisory Council on Oysters is proposing that the state devote more time and money to improve the oyster production on public oyster beds and develop policies that encourage private production, according to Dirk Frankenberg, chairman of the 19-member panel that is preparing the recommendations.

The panel's recommendations are in a draft of a report reviewed by the oyster council at a meeting earlier this week in Beaufort.

The draft urges state legislators and fisheries managers to make the following changes in its oyster management and protection program:

Encourage entrepreneurs to participate in the private production of oysters by leasing longer, cheaper and bigger areas for shellfish production.

Designate 50 tracts of 500 acres throughout Pamlico Sound for private oyster production.

Revise the types and quality of oyster enhancement efforts by designating oyster sanctuaries and seed management areas and protecting them from bottom-disturbing fishing practices.

Step up efforts to improve coastal water quality through a Marine Fisheries Commission-Environmental Management Commission plan. The plan would designate waters where shellfish harvest has been lost because of water quality degradation and return oysters to some of these waters in demonstration projects.

Improve promotion and marketing of state seafood with a new North Carolina Seafood Council.

Increase state spending for oyster management and protection programs.

The report recommends that the state continue restoration efforts until the state's oyster production reaches about 20 percent of the value of North Carolina seafood. It also recommends that the state accompany this effort by monitoring the effects of increased supplies of oysters on the price of oysters received by fishermen and seafood dealers.

The completed report is scheduled to be presented to the General Assembly in October - one year after the panel began its work.

Frankenberg, a North Carolina University professor, said parts of the report may prove contentious for some legislators - particularly the requests for more spending on oyster programs and the proposed expansion of the state's oyster bed leasing program. The program has been controversial among northeastern North Carolina fishermen in the past.

North Carolina's oyster harvest had dropped to just over 2 percent of landings in the state early in the century, according to Division of Marine Fisheries data.

At the turn of the century, North Carolina produced about 2 million bushels of oysters each year. By the 1930s, annual production had declined to about 300,000 bushels and during the last three years, that production has hovered at about 50,000 bushels, according to Division of Marine Fisheries statistics.

``The council reaches the inescapable conclusion that oyster harvests have declined sufficiently within North Carolina to justify bold new action and to require initiation of that action immediately before the crisis deepens,'' the draft report says.

This decline has been attributed to a number of causes - outbreaks of oyster diseases, overfishing, substantial declines in coastal water quality and the failure of resource managers to preserve oyster reef habitat.

In response to a dwindling oyster supply, the Division of Marine Fisheries instituted strict harvest and season limits in 1989, reducing its limit on an oysterman's daily catch and work week.

But fisheries managers generally agree that North Carolina's oyster management and production program have lagged behind other states.

North Carolina has about 1.8 million acres of coastal waters available for oyster production - second only to Louisiana - yet Louisiana leases 360,000 acres for private oyster production, and North Carolina leases only 2,600 acres.

And despite its large amount of potential oyster habitat and production areas, the state has never ranked above fifth in the United States in oyster harvest.

Most fisheries officials agree that substantial changes are needed in the state's oyster program.

``The oyster planting program is one of the worst things that the state is doing,'' Joey Daniels, a Wanchese commercial fisherman and seafood processor, said at one recent Marine Fisheries Commission meeting.