THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 15, 1995 TAG: 9511150222
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WANCHESE LENGTH: Long : 122 lines
Mr. Big is back.
Three months after a judge upheld the closing of the ocean around Alaska to scallop trawlers, the only boat fishing in those waters has returned to Wanchese.
Three decks high and 165 feet long with a crew of 15, Mr. Big is the largest vessel based at the Outer Banks.
The floating seafood processing factory and its fishermen spent 34 days cruising from Seattle through the Panama Canal and back to Roanoke Island. They arrived at Oregon Inlet last Friday.
Capt. William ``Punk'' Daniels said he plans to spend the next five months refitting his huge boat before sending it to South America where fewer rules dictate commercial fishing practices.
``We traveled almost 7,000 miles to get back here. And the worst part of the whole trip was the last mile,'' Daniels said Tuesday from the top deck of Mr. Big, which is docked at the North Carolina Seafood Industrial Park.
``I thought we were gonna lose this boat in our own Oregon Inlet. Hell, I was scared. We went about one foot at a time,'' said Daniels, a 49-year-old Wanchese native who has traversed that inlet hundreds of times. ``She don't draw but 8 feet - and we got stuck on the sand bar coming through. I'm surprised we made it at all. That inlet got even worse since I left.''
A former supply ship for off-shore oil riggers, Mr. Big first arrived on the Outer Banks in 1989. Daniels' family purchased the vessel to add to their fishing fleet at Wanchese Fish Co. Workers re-rigged the boat, added two 15-foot dredges and sent it to sea.
The boat trawled for scallops off New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts for two years. In 1991, the crew cruised to Alaska to drag for scallops off Pacific shores - where the shellfish are considerably larger. Until 1994, Mr. Big carried a state permit for Alaska that allowed its crew to fish up to three miles off the coast and a federal permit that covered waters up to 200 miles offshore.
In January, Daniels decided not to renew the state commercial fishing permit because Alaska officials were imposing strict quotas limiting how many scallops could be caught. Instead, the captain relied on a federal permit and only fished between three and 200 miles offshore. Mr. Big's crew unloaded their catch in Washington state this winter - where there is no scallop fishery and, therefore, no scallop quotas.
Daniels shipped almost all of the scallops back to the East Coast.
``We were only working in federal waters. So we didn't get an Alaska permit,'' Daniels said. ``There were 10 other boats scalloping in Alaska waters with state permits. But we were the only one working exclusively in federal waters. We stayed out 35 to 50 days at a time and landed in Seattle.''
On Jan. 26, Alaska officials closed their waters to scallop fishing. The annual state quota had been met in less than a month. Mr. Big kept fishing in federal waters.
On Feb. 16, Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles said Mr. Big had been ``exploiting a loophole in state and federal fishing regulations'' and demanded that the ``pirate fishery'' be stopped immediately. The governor admitted that ``the vessel does not fall under state jurisdiction'' because it was fishing outside Alaska's limits. But Knowles urged federal authorities to halt the ``bandits.''
The North Pacific Fisheries Management Council, which regulates fishing in federal waters, called an emergency telephone meeting about Mr. Big the next day. The group voted to close U.S. Pacific waters to scallopers. A week later, the U.S. Commerce Department enacted the emergency closure.
``They said we were catching five tons of scallops a day. Heck, we only got one ton a day,'' Daniels said. ``They shut the whole ocean down just for our boat. It's mind-boggling. The state of Alaska did everything they could to get us out.
``If that's not discrimination, I don't know what is.''
In March, Mr. Big's owners filed a lawsuit at U.S. District Court in Elizabeth City, asking the U.S. Commerce Department to repeal the unprecedented emergency closure.
In August, a federal judge in North Carolina upheld the Commerce Department's decision.
``There's no right in this deal. The National Marine Fisheries Service didn't even have a scallop plan until Alaska started complaining about us,'' Daniels said. ``They got scallops so thick up there that they can't even find enough food to feed themselves.''
For six months, Daniels waited at a Seattle dock for word on the judge's ruling. Mr. Big dragged for scallops off Washington state three times. But the beds didn't yield enough shellfish to justify the trip's expense, said the captain.
So early in October, Mr. Big headed for home.
``I was glad to leave if they ain't gonna let me make no money,'' said Daniels, who wears a gold hoop in his left ear and has a close-cropped salt-and-pepper beard and merry Carolina blue eyes.
By early spring, Daniels said, workers will have replaced Mr. Big's two generators with machines twice the current size. They'll add 10 wooden bunks to the sleeping births. And they plan to install mechanical shucking machines which have been outlawed in America.
Mr. Big will cruise to Argentina, where Daniels' brother, Apple, runs a 185-foot scallop trawler called the Aaron Bruce. A 30-man crew - about half of whom will be Americans - will live and work on Mr. Big. All the scallops caught in South America will be shipped to East Coast fishing markets in the United States.
``We can only get a permit for Argentina for a year at a time. But we're spending a half-million dollars refitting this boat for down there. So we plan to stay,'' Punk Daniels said. ``With automatic shucking machines, we can increase our productivity by 10 times. We'll probably use nets down there instead of dredges. But the South American scallops are a lot smaller than those off Alaska.''
Although he said he loves Mr. Big and called the boat ``the Cadillac of the ocean,'' Daniels does not plan to be on the vessel when it leaves for Argentina.
``I've been gone from here enough,'' said the captain, whose wife is expecting a baby. ``I don't know who will run Mr. Big. But it ain't gonna be me. I'm just glad to be back home.'' ILLUSTRATION: Through the Panama Canal and on to Roanoke Island
[Color Photo]
DREW C. WILSON
The Virginian-Pilot
The 165-foot commercial fishing vessel Mr. Big, owned by Wanchese
Fish Co., approaches the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge at Oregon Inlet
last week after steaming 32 days from Alaskan waters. It is the
largest vessel based at the Outer Banks.
by CNB