THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 2, 1995 TAG: 9510020038
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines
Fishermen pondering the future of fisheries management in North Carolina can get a glimpse of some of what's in store for their industry at a series of public hearings along the coast in November.
Fishermen will be asked to comment on proposed rules that:
Limit entry for commercial fishermen who ply the Atlantic Ocean for flounder;
Impose a gear license fee for pound nets;
Restrict the hours for fishing crab pots, and
Restrict the area flynet fishermen can use to tow their nets.
``I don't think there's any question about it. Those are certainly indicative of what's coming,'' said Marine Fisheries Commission Chairman Robert V. Lucas.
``This is probably the most significant amount of proposed rules that have gone to public hearing since I have been here.''
On Tuesday, he announced the dates and locations of five public hearings to discuss the proposed rule changes, which were brought forward by the fisheries commission last week in Wilmington.
Some of the proposed rules are based on fisheries management techniques that have been rarely used in North Carolina before and are the subject of study by the fisheries Moratorium Steering Committee as part of its overview of the state's coastal fisheries management.
Lucas and Jerry Schill, executive director of the North Carolina Fisheries Association, the state's largest commercial fishing trade group, predicted that many of the proposed rules will be controversial as well as ground-breaking. For instance, pound net fishermen face the first gear license charges in two generations under a proposal that would charge fishermen $250 per year to license those nets.
The Marine Fisheries Commission has the authority to implement gear or equipment license fees between $25 and $500 per license but has not done so since the 1920s. But Division of Marine Fisheries staff members and advisors on the fisheries commission's gear committee said the recent proliferation of pound nets has placed too much of a burden on the division's license staff and law enforcement officers.
By charging the $250 license fee, fisheries managers hope to slow the growth in pound net use and recoup some of the division's expenses in processing pound net licenses.
The state's crabbers could face some of the first restrictions on their industry as North Carolina considers joining Maryland and Virginia and six other states that limit the times when crab pots can be fished.
Fisheries managers and the commission's crab committee say that could cut the theft of crab pots and slow the increase in crab pot numbers.
And members of the Marine Fisheries Commission have turned their attention to restricting the use of one of the state's most controversial fishing practices - flynets - and propose to restrict the use of these nets to waters north of Hatteras.
Proponents of a rule to ban flynet fishing south of Cape Hatteras say the gear is nonselective in that it catches a large number of undersized weakfish, or gray trout. They hope that banning flynets in that area will encourage the use of gill nets to catch spot and croaker.
Opponents of the rule say net size restrictions imposed on the flynet industry in recent years have made the nets much more selective than they once were and have reduced the amount of weakfish and other small fish caught incidental to the targeted spot and croaker.
And when the fisheries commission adopted a temporary rule last week restricting the boats that can land flounder from the Atlantic Ocean at North Carolina ports, it imposed one of the state's first limited entry systems on commercial fishermen.
``This is an exceptionally important rule,'' Lucas said. ``It's the first time that we have gone . . . to the concept of limited entry.''
The rule also allows the state fisheries director to close state ports when the flounder catch reaches 70 percent of the state's commercial quota. ILLUSTRATION: PUBLIC HEARINGS
The public will be able to comment on about 20 new fisheries
regulations at a series of five hearings from Manteo to Asheboro
scheduled by the state Marine Fisheries Commission in November.
Here's a list of the public hearing sites:
Nov. 2, Manteo, North Carolina Aquarium, Roanoke Island;
Nov. 8, Wilmington, Cameron Auditorium, University of North Carolina
at Wilmington;
Nov. 9, Beaufort, Duke University Marine Lab auditorium, Pivers
Island;
Nov. 13, Washington, Beaufort County Community College, auditorium,
U.S. 264 East;
Nov. 14, Asheboro, North Carolina Zoological Park, Stedman Education
Center.
All public hearings will be at 7 p.m.
The commission will vote on the proposed rule changes when it meets
Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 in Hatteras.
For more information or for a complete text of a proposed rule
change, contact the Division of Marine Fisheries at (919) 726-7021.
Source: N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries.
by CNB