THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 8, 1995 TAG: 9512080506
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HATTERAS ISLAND LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
Although the manager of a commercial menhaden boat reported spilling some fish off the shores of this Outer Banks island, state fisheries officials said Thursday that they have not found any dead menhaden along Hatteras beaches.
North Carolina Divison of Marine Fisheries law enforcement officers and rangers with the National Park Service also downplayed reports of recent conflicts between recreational and commercial fishermen, saying the relationship between the two groups has improved drastically over the past three years.
``Rumors tend to fly on these types of incidents and we need to get all the facts straight,'' Cape Hatteras National Seashore Chief Ranger Mike Anderson said. ``We haven't had any problems at all with commercial fishermen in recent years. There have been no words exchanged, that I know of. And there haven't been any real problems.''
Shortly after 5 p.m. Monday, the manager of a Virginia-based menhaden company reported spilling some fish about five miles north of Rodanthe. On Tuesday and Wednesday, state fisheries officials made five flights over the northern end of Hatteras Island, looking for the carcasses. But they failed to find any.
``We have not found any evidence of a menhaden kill or signs of dead fish that might be associated with such a spill,'' Lt. Doug Sawyer of the North Carolina Marine Fisheries law enforcement division said.
``The whole operation was strictly legal out there. It was just a legitimate accident that forced some crew men to cut their net,'' said Sawyer. ``The company was very concerned. Their officials followed all the right rules and procedures. No clean up was necessary at all.
``This is not as big a problem as people perceive it to be.''
Based in Reedville, Va., Zapata Organic Inc. is a commercial fishing company that uses boats to surround tiny fish called menhaden in a net. The fish then are processed into protein additives and used in cat, cattle, pig, chicken and fish food products. A few of the flat fish, also called fatbacks, are added to fertilizers.
On Monday afternoon, Zapata General Manager Steve Jones said, a crew was fishing for menhaden about a quarter-mile off of Pea Island when one of the nets filled with sand. The sand was so heavy, he said, that the mechanical cranks on the boat could not pull the net back on board. So crew members cut a 50-foot section out of the 1,200-foot net and finally freed the vessel from its sand anchor.
``We knew we'd lost some fish out there. And we wanted people to know where they came from if they washed ashore,'' Jones said Thursday. ``We sent our own plane up to survey the area every day this week and we haven't seen anything yet. We contacted a crew in Avon to clean up the beaches just in case some fish do wash up. And we'll fly all day Friday looking, too. If we do see anything, we'll make sure it gets cleaned up immediately. But we're hoping whatever we lost just sunk to the bottom - and will stay there.
``It was a freaky thing that happens about once every 10 years,'' said Jones. ``But you've got to take care of it when it does.''
Tuesday afternoon, recreational fishermen near Rodanthe said they saw several dead striped bass on the beach. But fisheries police officers said there was no evidence that the striped bass came from the menhaden boat's net. Such a scenario, they said, was highly unlikely.
``There were six or eight striped bass out there about six miles south of Rodanthe Pier. The menhaden boat reported the spill about 4 miles north of that area. And there were no menhaden mixed in with the striped bass,'' Sawyer said. ``If you don't see menhaden, too, those other fish probably didn't come from that boat.
``A lot of the anglers on that pier were catching striped bass and releasing them that day,'' said Sawyer. ``Those fish may have been the ones that Rodanthe Pier anglers released - but just didn't survive.''
Russ Privett, who owns ``The Fishing Hole'' tackle shop in Salvo, said dead menhaden were strewn along a couple hundred yards of the beach near Ramp 23 on Wednesday.
``It was not a tremendous amount of fish,'' he said. ``And it was all menhaden - no other fish mixed in. Where did they come from? I don't have no idea.''
Park Ranger Anderson and Dare County spokesman Charlie Hartig said menhaden company officials were extremely reponsive about the spill and willing to take full responsibility for any cleanup.
Anderson also denied rumors that commercial and recreational anglers were clashing around Oregon Inlet over the weekend. Rangers contacted some commercial fishermen who were going to launch a dory in a ``sports fishing only zone'' south of Ramp 4 on Sunday, he said. The commercial fishing crew immediately agreed to move north, into an unzoned area of the beach.
``The commercial fishermen didn't have a problem with that at all,'' Anderson said. ``I think things are going really well out there this year. We have to realize that commercial fishermen are trying to earn a living and recreational anglers are trying to have some fun. Both sets of fishermen contribute to the local economy. Both can use and share the resource.''
Another incident at the inlet on Sunday involved a commercial beach seining crew who hauled in a net near some recreational anglers. The commercial crew legally set and fished their nets. But the recreational fishermen were concerned that the commercial fishermen weren't throwing undersized and illegal fish back into the ocean fast enough. Many of the smaller fish were dying on the beach before they were returned to the water, said the sports fishermen, who helped return the smaller specimens to the waves.
State fisheries law enforcement officers said there is no rule specifying how quickly unkeepable fish must be sent back to sea.
``We ask them to cull their nets and return the smaller fish to the ocean as soon as possible,'' North Carolina Marine Fisheries law enforcement officer Mike Davis said. ``But sometimes it takes them a while to get through their whole nets. There's nothing illegal about that.'' by CNB