THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 31, 1996 TAG: 9601310478
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MANTEO LENGTH: Medium: 98 lines
New York officials have no right to ban North Carolina gray trout from being sold at their fish markets, a group of angry Outer Banks fishermen told the Dare County Board of Commissioners Tuesday.
``Dare County alone produces half the gray trout sold in the United States,'' Wanchese fisherman Willie Etheridge told the seven-member panel. ``We're just good, hard-working people. We're not out there raping the oceans. We're getting good food sources to supply all the people with. We bring seafood to everyone who can't catch it themselves.
``And our right to do that is being taken away.''
After hearing comments from 10 watermen and seafood processors, commissioners promised to do everything they can to get New York officials to open their markets to out-of-state catches.
``I think there's a conflict with interstate trade here without question,'' Board of Commissioners Chairman Robert V. ``Bobby'' Owens Jr. told the 30 local fishermen who attended Tuesday's emergency board meeting. ``Our fishermen should have the right to sell their fish anywhere they want. I hope to get some action with the governor's office, the attorney general's office, Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight's office and, yes, even the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries office.
``We can't tell the state of New York what to do,'' Owens said. ``But our attorney general's office can tell them they're breaking interstate trade laws.''
County board members voted unanimously Tuesday to pass a resolution supporting Outer Banks commercial fishermen. The resolution, which will be sent to other state officials this week, says Dare County commissioners will ``immediately pursue every legal and political avenue available to quickly eliminate all interstate commerce restrictions from our . . . commercial fishermen.''
``This sets the stage for us to ask for a federal court injunction,'' said Commissioner Clarence Skinner, who wrote the resolution. ``We have a federal crisis on our hands that needs to be solved quickly.''
Gray trout, also called weakfish, are among the most valuable fish caught commercially by North Carolina watermen. Although gray trout swim all along the Atlantic seaboard, more than 75 percent of the harvest is taken off North Carolina shores. In Dare County alone, at least 200 watermen, fish packers and seafood distributors depend on gray trout for their winter income.
Several years ago, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission imposed strict management guidelines for gray trout. The regional panel, however, allowed individual states to decide how to regulate their gray trout catches. North Carolina required its watermen to include fish excluder devices in their nets; close waters south of Cape Hatteras to fly netting; and not sell any fish smaller than 10 inches.
New York adopted a 16-inch limit - and decided to close certain seasons to commercial catches of gray trout. Between Nov. 15 and April 1 - and from June 24 to Aug. 28 - New York watermen are not allowed to catch gray trout. During those same seasons, New York fish markets are not allowed to sell gray trout - even if it's caught legally in North Carolina.
So although Outer Banks watermen have caught record numbers of gray trout recently, they haven't been able to sell their catches in New York for the past two years. They've already flooded Baltimore and Philadelphia markets with the fish. And prices have dropped from $1 to 20-cents per pound.
``We just can't get any money for these fish any more without the New York markets to buy them,'' Wanchese fisherman Billy Carl Tillett said. ``What they're doing is illegal. And time's running out for us, on our season. These restrictions are really hurting a lot of people.''
After receiving pressure from North Carolina watermen and officials this fall, New York fisheries rule makers agreed to allow gray trout caught in southern states to be sold in their fish markets - provided that each fish had a tag attached. Watermen said it would be extremely impractical, time consuming and cost prohibitive to tag hundreds of 1- to 2-pound fish. In each cardboard box of gray trout, for example, there are an average of 50 fish.
``You can sell anything else you want in New York,'' Dare County Commissioner Doug Langford said. ``But they've singled out gray trout as the product to keep out. Asking these fishermen to tag each fish is just another way of stonewalling these guys.''
On Monday, a New York fisheries law enforcement officer charged four seafood dealers at Fulton's Fish Market in New York with possessing a total of about 2,000 pounds of gray trout out of season, said Bill Hewitt of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Hewitt did not know whether all of those gray trout were from North Carolina. But the shipments were returned to their states of origin, he said. And the fish dealers were fined a minimum of $250 each.
``New York can't stop us from catching gray trout,'' Outer Banks waterman Brownie Douglas said. ``So they're stopping us from selling them. The result's the same, though: Commercial fishermen lose.''
Most of the gray trout being caught - and discussed - come from state waters up to three miles offshore.
Next week, a federal judge in Norfolk is scheduled to hear arguments about rules governing gray trout catches between three and 200 miles offshore. The U.S. Secretary of Commerce closed federal waters of the Atlantic to gray trout catches in late 1995. But after North Carolina and Virginia watermen filed suit against the secretary, a judge granted a temporary restraining order that allows only North Carolina watermen to continue catching gray trout until the case can be tried beginning Feb. 5. by CNB