THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 31, 1995 TAG: 9507310102
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines
As North Carolina is today, Maryland in the late 1980s was faced with some tough decisions on managing its fisheries.
Catches of striped bass and oysters, two of the state's most valuable commercial species, were severely restricted. And more of the state's commercial fishermen were beginning to rely on the stocks of blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay for their livelihoods.
Commercial fishermen then began using more gear to catch the same amount of crabs, a sure sign of potential problems in the industry, said one Maryland fisheries manager.
``This was our last big industry,'' said David Blazer, assistant to the fisheries director for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. ``A lot of watermen were scared.''
``We tried to continue our management with very traditional means, such as size limits and creel limits,'' Blazer said. ``But we couldn't keep up with the trend, with the number of people and the amount of effort that everybody was putting into it.
``So the concept of limited entry - some way of controlling the effort - came into the discussion,'' he said.
In 1994, the Maryland General Assembly approved a law that limits the number of commercial licenses available to fishermen who ply the state's waters for fish and shellfish and limits the amount of equipment that holders of various licenses can use.
Maryland's Department of Natural Resources also has established waiting lists for commercial fishermen who want to enter the fishing industry. And it has imposed a moratorium on the issuance of new licenses, which will be in effect until Sept. 1, 1996.
Limited entry, or limited access, is an increasingly popular form of fisheries management.
Maryland is one of 12 coastal states with state-controlled limited entry management plans that cover about 24 species of fish and shellfish. About eight additional limited entry plans are imposed by the federal government, according to Michael K. Orbach, a Duke University researcher.
Orbach will lead a series of workshops along the coast beginning Tuesday night in Manteo and ending Aug. 9 in Wilmington to discuss fisheries management issues and the concept of limited entry.
``The question in these workshops will be what form of limited entry or access, if any, might be appropriate to fisheries in North Carolina,'' Orbach said.
Limiting entry is just one of the changes in North Carolina's system of fisheries management being considered by a 19-member task force as it tries to ease fishing pressure along North Carolina's coast and preserve the state's $1 billion fishing industry.
Orbach's findings will be used to help the steering committee prepare its report to the General Assembly.
Of the limited entry action, Maryland fisheries director W. Pete Jensen often says: ``My biggest regret is that we didn't do it sooner.''
But not all Maryland commercial fishermen believe that limiting access to the state's waters is a good idea.
Some, like Allen Abbott of Chance, Md., say the state's limited entry laws have hurt his ability to expand his business.
Abbott, 32, the son of a fish buyer, grew up on Deal Island, a commercial fishing community on the Chesapeake Bay across from the mouth of the Potomac River.
Today, Abbott wants to upgrade his existing crab license, which limits him to 50 crab pots, to one that will allow him to set 250 more crab pots and hire an additional employee. But Maryland's new laws prevent him from doing so.
Abbott said that for the past two years he has been among the first 10 names on a waiting list for the new license. But Maryland's limited entry law forces him to continue to wait to expand his business until a fisherman who holds the sought-after crab license drops out of the industry.
``The thing is, they can't tell me when I will get a license,'' Abbott said from his parents' Deal Island home. ``It's hard because people want to try to better themselves. They want to be able to make a living on the water.''
And he said an increase in the required paperwork prompted by Maryland's limited entry law also is a problem for fishermen.
But Abbott said the limited entry law, despite its other problems, has reduced the competition for crabs in Maryland waters and has generally contributed to higher prices.
Robert V. Lucas, chairman of the North Carolina Moratorium Steering Committee, said that in North Carolina, as in Maryland, restricting commercial gear to fishermen who rely on the state's waterways for a living and reducing competition for the resource is one of the main goals of planners.
And one of the ways to do that may be a system of limited entry, Lucas said.
``I frankly think that's where we're headed,'' he said. MEMO: Related story also on page B1.
KEYWORDS: COMMERCIAL FISHING by CNB