THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 27, 1995 TAG: 9510270511
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
The state's largest commercial fishing trade group has taken steps to go to court to prevent a possible federal closure of offshore waters to weakfish, and fisheries officials Thursday indicated the state may be interested in joining their effort.
The North Carolina Fisheries Association, a commercial fishing trade group in New Bern, has hired Norfolk lawyer Waverly Berkley to prepare papers to block enforcement of a proposed ban on the catch and possession of weakfish in federal offshore waters.
The federal government is moving forward with a plan to restore the dwindling stock of weakfish along the Atlantic Coast by closing offshore waters to the catch of the popular fish.
After reviewing 1994 catch data and the comments made in letters and at public hearings along the Atlantic Coast, the National Marine Fisheries Service earlier this month decided to press ahead with a ban on the catch and possession of weakfish in the Exclusive Economic Zone, or EEZ.
Closure of the EEZ now rests with Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown, who is expected to make his decision within by Nov. 7.
``Obviously we cannot take any action until Secretary Brown signs off on the plan,'' said Sandy Semans, spokesman for the fisheries association. ``But the season is so short we wanted to be ready to act.''
The association's board of directors voted Tuesday night to hire Berkley, Semans said.
Berkley recently represented a group of Virginia surf clam and quahog fishermen in federal district court in Richmond in that group's action against NMFS. The fishermen maintained that senior NMFS scientists withheld critical information from fishermen in imposing a federal quota on the fishery.
A judge's decision in that action is expected in three weeks, Semans said.
The proposed NMFS action that would prompt a North Carolina lawsuit is a prohibition on the catch and possession of weakfish by recreational and commercial fishermen in the Atlantic Coast Exclusive Economic Zone, a conservation zone in the Atlantic, between 3 miles and 200 miles off East Coast states from Maine to Florida.
It would also bar fishermen plying the EEZ from possessing weakfish, also known as gray trout, taken incidental to catches of other species of fish. The proposed rule stipulates that such bycatch must be released to the water as soon as possible.
A closure, if approved by Brown, could be set for as early as Dec. 6.
Marine Fisheries Commission Chairman Robert V. Lucas, said on Thursday afternoon that state fisheries officials support the fisheries association's efforts to block a closure of the EEZ to weakfish and he said the state may decide to join with the fisheries association if it goes ahead with a lawsuit.
``I think that the last thing any of us want is a lawsuit,'' he said. ``But everybody's on the same page on this one.''
The effects of a closure of the EEZ to weakfish catches - the second most valuable finfish caught by commercial fishermen in the state - on North Carolina's commercial fishermen would be significant, according to fishermen and state fisheries regulators.
They worry that a ban on weakfish in the EEZ would leave a significant number of Hatteras commercial fishermen scrambling for something else to do this winter. And they say it could lead to a significant increase in conflicts among fishermen forced to fish in nearshore and inside waters. by CNB