THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 11, 1996 TAG: 9601110378
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
Although the state's Marine Fisheries Commission has more than $25,000 in its conservation fund, no money from the fund has ever been spent on conservation purposes.
Records that Marine Fisheries Commission Chairman Bob Lucas released Wednesday show that there is even more money in the fund than the $18,700 that has been contributed from fishing tournament entry fees since 1991.
All of the contributions have been accounted for.
But the money has sat in the fund, unused.
``There's enough money now that we need to start considering how it will be spent,'' Lucas said Wednesday from his Selma law office. ``I'll bring the issue up at our next commission meeting and get some suggestions about how it should be spent. And I'm going to get some guidelines from the state attorney general's office about how it can be spent.''
Created in 1987, the North Carolina Marine Conservation Fund did not begin receiving income until 1991 when the Governor's Cup Billfish Tournament began earmarking $100 of each $150 boat registration fee for the conservation fund.
According to law, the fund can only be spent on ``marine and estuarine conservation and management.''
As of Wednesday, it carried a balance of $25,468.
Lucas is the only person who can sign checks from the fund.
Last week, North Carolina Fisheries Association Director Jerry Schill asked the state to conduct an official audit of the conservation fund - which many state employees didn't even know existed. The auditor refused, deeming the fund's balance too low to warrant an audit. So Lucas decided to release the accounting figures himself.
According to checkbook ledgers and bank statements from December 1994 through the present, all money that has been spent from the fund has gone toward putting on the Governor's Cup Billfishing Conservation Series of tournaments. Corporate sponsors pay a total of $15,000 to finance the final Governor's Cup Tournament each fall. But that money also goes into the conservation fund. So checks for trophies, banquets and brochures for the tournament all come out of the conservation fund account.
``The entry fee funds are earmarked for the conservation account. They're not spent on the tournament,'' said state sportsfishing specialist Dale Ward, who administers money for the conservation fund. All of the checks and deposits, however, go into the same account, he said.
Lucas said Wednesday that he realizes that system may not be the most efficient way to administer the fund. He said a positive result of the audit request is that he's decided to ask fisheries accountants to split the fund into two separate accounts: a trust fund for conservation that would be financed solely through tournament registration fees and would not be touched except to fund conservation programs; and an operating expenses account that would contain corporate sponsorship donations and be used to write checks to pay for the tournament.
In December 1994, Lucas signed checks from the conservation fund for $250 to pay a disc jockey who played at the tournament banquet; $203 for invitations and programs for the tournament; and $3,414 for seven hand-carved trophies that were awarded to tournament winners.
More than $3,180 was spent on a Governor's Cup Tournament reception in Raleigh that Kelly's Restaurant of Nags Head catered in 1994. More than $3,000 has been spent on tournament T-shirts in the past year. Sponsorships also paid for embroidered hats, styrofoam drink huggies, magazine advertising for the tournament, programs, and fish tags.
``No state funds are used to put on this tournament, except for part of my salary when I'm working on administering the money for it,'' Ward said. ``We're not trying to make money for the fund from the sponsorships - only from the boat entry fees. The tournament is supposed to break even and promote conservation and sportsfishing in North Carolina.
``All the money that's gone into that fund is still there,'' said Ward. ``They just haven't used any of it for conservation purposes yet.'' by CNB