THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 14, 1995 TAG: 9510140311
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEW BERN LENGTH: Long : 116 lines
When Pamlico County crabber Wayne Dunbar arrived at his boat dock on the Neuse River on Friday morning, he was met by fisheries enforcement officers who said that he had to take his crab pots out of the water and dump any crabs in those pots overboard.
For more than a decade, Dunbar, 38, has worked the waters of the Neuse River for a living, but he said Friday that he may be forced to look for another job to support his wife and three children if he can't fish the river.
``It means I'm going to have to look for another job,'' Dunbar said. ``And with it coming up on Christmas, it will mean no Santa Claus this year for my children.''
Dunbar's family is one of more than two dozen fishing families along the waterway whose livelihoods were affected when state fisheries Director Bruce L. Freeman on Thursday halted commercial fishing on a 10-mile section of the lower Neuse River in response to growing consumer worries about the safety of the state's seafood.
The order, which covers commercial fishing in the Neuse River and its tributaries upstream from Slocum and Beard creeks, was effective as soon as it was signed by Freeman about 4:30 p.m. Thursday and became enforceable by state fisheries officers early Friday morning.
It was endorsed and expanded Friday afternoon by the state Marine Fisheries Commission, the 17-member panel that oversees the state's coastal fishing industry. The commission approved a temporary rule that affirms Freeman's order, halts sports fishing and prevents fishermen from selling their catch.
The commission voted 10-3 to uphold and expand Freeman's order.
The closure and the warning will be lifted when the state determines that there is no longer an active outbreak of the toxic algae known as pfiesteria piscimorte in the area - probably three days after the last reported fish death, state officials said.
The panel also approved unanimously a resolution that asks the state to reimburse fishermen whose livelihoods are affected by the closure.
And it voted to hold public hearings on a proposal that would give Freeman the authority to close other coastal waterways where health warnings have been issued in response to a fish kill.
``This is the saddest day I've had since I've been on this commission,'' said commission Chairman Robert V. Lucas said after the meeting. ``This has been difficult, but we felt it was absolutely necessary.''
The commission action follows a health warning issued last week advising people not to eat fish and shellfish from the area of the river near the site of a toxic algae bloom on the Neuse River that has reportedly caused the deaths of more than 10 million menhaden.
Since the state issued that warning, consumers have begun to question the safety of all North Carolina seafood products, division officials have said.
And recent news reports that commercial fishermen and crabbers continue to ply the waters of the Neuse River despite the fish kill and health warning have shaken consumer confidence further.
To prevent the collapse of the state's entire seafood industry, state fisheries officials opted to close part of the Neuse River to assure consumers that potentially unhealthy seafood is not reaching the market.
While Friday's action by the commission applies only to the part of the Neuse River and its tributaries near a series of fish kills linked to pfisteria , the river closure means more than 3,000 crab pots and more than 50 gill nets will have to be removed from the waterway in the next few days.
And it comes at a critical time and location for the waterway's fishermen who try to catch row-laden mullet as they head upstream to spawn.
It's too early to tell the effects of the order on the local economy, fisheries officials said, but the Neuse River accounted for 174,000 pounds of fish landed in October 1994 valued at $163,000.
Dunbar said the commission's action is especially tough for commercial fishermen, because they are bearing the brunt of environmental problems linked to upstream pollution and not caused by fishermen.
``They're putting us out of business, but the man who caused the pollution went to work today and is able to make a living,'' he said.
Dunbar was one of about 20 people - most of them commercial fishermen or their family members - who spoke at the commission meeting in a banquet room overlooking a section of waterway subject to the closure.
Dunbar and others urged the state to take a variety of steps to help clean up North Carolina's coastal waterways, including:
Giving more authority to the state Marine Fisheries Commission to address water quality and habitat issues.
Allocating more money for research on the toxic algae.
Involving fishermen more closely in helping clean up the river.
Expanding state water-quality monitoring programs.
Despite the immediate effects on some commercial fishing families, the closure has the support of the N.C. Fisheries Association, the state's largest commercial fishing trade group, its executive director said Thursday.
``It does not matter why or why not a consumer fails to buy your product,'' said Jerry Schill, fisheries association executive director. ``If the product does not sell, you're losing money at best and out of a job at worst.''
``That's why the N.C. Fisheries Association has reluctantly agreed to support this closure - simply to protect our markets nationwide and internationally by assuring consumers that, even though we do not believe that seafood harvested in the Neuse River is a health threat, we are willing to take whatever steps are necessary to erase any doubts as to its safety,'' he said.
While no figures are available from the state fisheries division, interviews earlier this week and testimony by fishermen and others Friday indicated that seafood markets, tackle shops and guide services all along the state's coast had been affected by the health warning.
Tom Caroon, owner of a seafood market in Pamlico County, just downstream from the area of the fish kill, said Thursday that his retail sales are off about 60 percent in the last few weeks over this time last year.
And George Beckwith, a coastal fishing guide with offices in New Bern and Oriental, said he had received telephone calls from all over the Southeast and from as far away as Arizona from clients wondering if it would be safe to come to North Carolina and fish or questioning whether the fish they had caught during an earlier trip is safe to eat.
Millions of fish have died in the Neuse River this summer, including more than 10 million in the past 15 days, and some people who have come into contact with the water are reporting dizziness, rashes and sores. by CNB