THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 25, 1995 TAG: 9511250251
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
If a new plan to save North Carolina's fisheries is passed, it would put part-time fishermen like Chummy Willis out of business.
Willis' seasonal job as a boat mechanic occupies him for about eight months a year. He spends his off time gill netting, then selling his catch.
``It's either fish or draw unemployment,'' said his wife, Nancy. ``He does it so we can meet our bills.''
A task force formed a year and a half ago to develop strategies to improve fish populations is preparing to unveil proposed new regulations in January.
Among other things, the Moratorium Steering Committee, as the group is called, wants to restrict the number of fishing licenses issued.
Fishermen like Willis who do not make at least 50 percent of their income from selling fish would not be permitted to sell any. Recreational fishermen would be required to buy saltwater licenses for the first time.
``It's going to be controversial, and I'm not saying it's going to be pleasant,'' said Bob Lucas, chairman of the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission. ``What I'm saying is, it's got to be done.''
The committee also is poised to recommend taxing fishing gear on a sliding scale, with the highest tax rate for the most destructive nets. Some gear could be banned altogether, and Albemarle and Pamlico sounds could be placed off-limits to large trawlers. Crab pots and pound nets would be strictly limited.
Other proposed regulations would:
Increase penalties for violations and create an auxiliary police force to beef up enforcement, which has been all but nonexistent over the years.
Give the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission a substantive voice in matters concerning development and waste discharge, particularly when water quality in spawning areas would be affected.
Reduce the size of the fisheries commission from its current 17 members to nine or 11. The commission is responsible for determining size limits, setting fishing seasons and limiting gear.
Some of the changes are drastic, and a fight is certain, involving politicians, businesses, biologists and fishermen of all stripes.
``It's going to be a long haul, but timing is everything, and I can't imagine better timing than we have right now,'' said Joan Weld, a member of the moratorium committee and the state's assistant secretary for natural resources.
Over the past 15 years, stocks of the state's major finfish and shellfish have declined dramatically, in large part because of overfishing. Piecemeal regulations, often late and weakly enforced, have been ineffective, failing to take into account new technology and doing little to protect the state's spawning areas from pollution.
Much of that apathy changed this fall, however, when a massive fish kill hit the Neuse River. About 10 million fish died. Newspaper and TV photographs showed thousands of them dead and floating, many with red, oozing sores on their bodies.
``There is a momentum building that something has to be done on a lot of different fronts,'' Lucas said. ``I think the problem has gotten so bad that it's presented a huge window of opportunity to get something done.''
The proposals from the moratorium committee will have to pass first through the Joint Commission on Seafood and Aquaculture, which is dominated by lawmakers from the coast, and then through the full legislature.
``I'm going to have a hard time telling people they can no longer do commercial fishing,'' said Rep. Robert Grady, a Republican from Jacksonville who serves on the seafood committee.
``We're being pushed to decide who has access to a public resource. That isn't something I'm sure I'm comfortable with,'' Grady said.
But that is precisely the effect of the recommendations from the moratorium committee - to reduce the number of people catching fish.
Already, the issuing of new commercial licenses has been halted until 1998 while a strategy to save the fish is developed - thus the name ``moratorium committee.''
``It's not that we're trying to be un-American,'' Lucas said. ``It's just that we're trying to preserve the resource. It's not going to survive the way things are now.''
Even among commercial fishermen there seems to be a growing realization that they are going to have to make some sacrifices, said Dallas Ormond, who fishes in the Pamlico River and Pamlico Sound.
He works six or seven days a week, 12 and 14 hours a day, zipping around in a 20-foot Privateer to man his crab pots and pound nets, and it is increasingly difficult for him to make a living on the water.
``Things are the worst that I've seen,'' he said. ``You got all these big commercial guys with all that wasteful, destructive gear, and all that water pollution, and nobody with the backbone to do anything about it.''
He is all for limiting the more destructive gear, and if he has to pay a bit to keep his nets in the water, he is willing to do so.
Bruce Freeman, director if the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, said the need to implement the package should not be underestimated.
``It will have a profound impact on the fisheries of North Carolina,'' he said. ``Whichever way we go, it will probably impact what goes on here for the next 30 years.'' by CNB