THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 6, 1995 TAG: 9510060500
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 104 lines
Concerned over deteriorating water quality and changes in state wetland protection regulations, a group of Albemarle-area fishing families has formed a new organization.
Watermen Aligned for the Environment and Resources Inc., or WATER, will be dedicated not to fighting new regulations, but to protecting waterways and habitat that produce fish stocks, founders said this week.
``We wanted to do more than just fisheries issues,'' said Twila M. Nelson, wife of Harkers Island commercial fisherman William Nelson and a member of the new group's founding board of directors.
``We wanted to be a bridge - the missing link - between fishermen's groups and environmental groups.''
Nelson and other leaders of the new group are meeting this week with representatives of about 60 foundations to seek start-up funds for WATER, and financial support for some of the group's first education projects.
Recent efforts by some state legislators to weaken environmental laws that protect wetlands and preserve water quality, followed by a summer of fish kills on coastal waterways and a series of hog lagoon spills in southeastern North Carolina, prompted the formation of the new organization, Nelson said.
``Somebody had to speak up or the heritage of fishing would be lost,'' said Nelson, who has been nominated for a seat on the state Marine Fisheries Commission.
WATER members will spend most of their time educating the public about the value commercial fishermen contribute to the coastal economy, the value of wetlands and clean water to the fishing industry, the strides the fishing industry has made in solving problems associated with the industry and about the role commercial fishing has played in the heritage of coastal North Carolina.
The group will not limit its membership to women in the state's commercial fishing community.
But its five-member founding board of directors includes some of the most active women in the industry.
They are: Nelson; Mildred Gilgo of Atlantic, wife, daughter and granddaughter of commercial fishermen; Barbara Garrity-Blake, East Carolina University and Carteret Community College teacher; Susan B. West, wife of Hatteras Island commercial fisherman Robert West and president of the North Carolina Fisheries Association's Hatteras-Ocracoke Auxiliary; and Melba W. Edwards, a Brunswick County tax accountant and co-owner of a snapper-grouper fishing boat based in Southport.
Three of the board members - Garrity-Blake, West and Edwards - serve on the state fisheries Moratorium Steering Committee, the panel that is revamping North Carolina's fisheries management programs.
Besides educating the public, WATER members also hope to provide more of a voice for the state's rank-and-file commercial fishermen who are often overlooked by other organizations. WATER members also plan to improve the marketing of North Carolina's seafood, according to Edwards.
``A number of us have talked over time that some of these organizations are for larger fishermen and there wasn't anything the smaller fishermen, the little guy with just one boat, could turn to,'' Edwards said. ``Most independent fishermen are very shy and it's hard to get them to come to an organizational meeting. This group will be a voice for them.
``Commercial people are truly conservationists,'' said Edwards. ``But they've been given a negative image here.''
North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission Chairman Robert V. Lucas said this week that a link between commercial fishermen is ``probably long overdue'' and he praised the new group's goals.
``I think that commercial fishing is part of our heritage,'' said Lucas. ``To make sure it continues to be that, a lot of education needs to take place.''
This is not the first time the coast's commercial fishing women have organized on behalf of their industry.
In 1991, a group of Pamlico County women organized an auxiliary under the umbrella of the N.C. Fisheries Association.
The group - which included wives of commercial fishermen, and women who own seafood dealerships and related businesses - was organized to support the commercial fishing industry, react to the increasing regulation of the industry and press the concerns of commercial fishermen before industry regulators and government officials.
Its founding members said fishermen, who had to be on the water to earn a living, did not have time to respond to the fast pace of regulations and attend public meetings to comment on the proposed rules.
Within weeks, the auxiliary movement spread to Carteret County and Dare County.
Suddenly, chapter members - many of whom had never been to a public hearing before - began studying fisheries regulations, attending public hearings, sponsoring forums, conducting letter-writing campaigns and launching a highly visible campaign to support the commercial fishing industry.
But some auxiliary group leaders said they felt constrained working under the auspices of another group, so they formed WATER as well.
``Most of the fisheries groups focus on nothing but fisheries issues and regulations,'' said Nelson. ``We wanted to bite off the whole enchilada.'' MEMO: WATER TAX DOCUMENTS
Watermen Aligned for the Environment and Resources, or WATER, a new
organization that seeks to strengthen ties between environmental groups
and fishermen, has filed incorporation and tax-exempt documents.
For more information about WATER, contact its leaders at 369 Diamond
City Drive, Harkers Island, N.C. 28531; call (919) 728-7947; or fax the
new organization at (919) 504-3363.
KEYWORDS: COMMERCIAL FISHING by CNB