THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 7, 1995 TAG: 9510070281
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEW BERN LENGTH: Short : 35 lines
The state's largest commercial fishing trade group on Friday reaffirmed its pledge to seek court action against the National Marine Fisheries Service if it imposes a ban on weakfish harvest and possession in federal offshore waters.
``We've had enough of these political and bureaucratic games,'' Jerry Schill, executive director of the North Carolina Fisheries Association, said late Friday afternoon. ``We will see them in court - and it won't be to play tennis.
``This is a ludicrous misuse of authority that we will not stand still for,'' said Schill. ``We are in compliance with every rule relating to weakfish and yet NMFS wants to shut us down because the Mid-Atlantic Council has not produced their own management plan for the EEZ.''
North Carolina is in compliance with all fisheries management plans - including the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's weakfish plan, Schill said.
And one Dare County commercial fishermen reaffirmed his assertion made earlier this year that a ban on weakfish in the Exclusive Economic Zone will ultimately be a waste of resource. ``This is an antiquated form of management,'' said Rob West, a Hatteras sink-net fisherman. ``What is most disturbing is that if I go across that line to catch other species and accidentally catch weakfish, I will have to throw them away.'' by CNB