THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 15, 1996 TAG: 9603150485
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NAGS HEAD LENGTH: Long : 132 lines
Sports fishermen shouldn't have to buy a license to fish in the state's coastal waters, anglers, pier owners and charter boat captains said Thursday.
``A saltwater license would have a devastating effect on every human being east of Raleigh,'' recreational angler Izetta Redmon told members of North Carolina's Moratorium Steering Committee. ``Most of us depend on that water to stock our salt barrels and freezers during months of low income to ward off starvation. . . . I'm shocked, dismayed and extremely disappointed by the recommendations made by your committee.
``I am hopeful that you will recognize the inadequacies of all your proposals - especially the one to require a license to fish in our oceans.''
Her plea came during a daylong meeting of the state committee appointed to overhaul North Carolina's commercial and recreational fishing industries. About 75 people attended the workshop held at the Nags Head fire house. By a show of hands, only six people in the room supported a suggestion to require a saltwater sports fishing license for all recreational anglers.
No one spoke in favor of the suggested license. At least 15 speakers denounced the proposal.
``We, as a group, are opposed to a recreational fishing license,'' said Satch Smith, manager of the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center, speaking for about three dozen charter boat captains who dock at his facility. ``It would add an expense to a family trying to fish. And I'm concerned with the logistics of issuing such a license. It would be unfair to put that burden on the captains and crews of the vessels.''
Manteo charter boat captain Rick Caton, who also commercial fishes part-time, agreed. ``I'm adamantly opposed to a saltwater sports fishing license,'' he said. ``So many people are impressed that they can come the Outer Banks and have one activity left to them that they're not taxed on. . . this is what it should be.''
Moratorium Steering Committee members have not yet decided to ask the state's legislature to implement a sports fishing license for North Carolina's coastal waters. On Thursday, they were seeking public input about whether to make such a request during the January 1997 General Assembly session. Committee members plan to vote on the proposals by June.
In July 1997, a statewide moratorium on commercial fishing licenses is scheduled to expire.
Under the steering committee's preliminary recommendations, North Carolina would charge recreational anglers age 16 and older $15 for an annual saltwater fishing license and $5 for a one-week permit. License sales agents would be allowed to keep $1 for each permit they sold. The rest of the revenue would be earmarked for a Coastal Recreational Fishing License Trust Fund that would fund fisheries law enforcement efforts, resource enhancement, research, grants and administrative overhead expenditures.
``Commercial fishing license fees always have gone back to the state's general fund,'' said Moratorium Steering Committee Chairman Bob Lucas, who also leads the North Carolina's Marine Fisheries Commission. ``We're trying to get this recreational license money back to the fisheries' users.''
North Carolina is the only state between Virginia and Texas that doesn't require some form of a saltwater sports fishing license. About 700,000 recreational anglers drop lines in North Carolina's coastal waters each year. Although charter boats and some head boats don't fish inside state waters, but travel more than three miles offshore into federally controlled parts of the Atlantic, every angler going through the state's waters would have to have a recreational license under the current proposal.
Some pier owners and charter boat captains said if there has to be a saltwater sports fishing license, they would prefer a blanket permit that they could buy to cover their entire operation - so individual users wouldn't have to make that purchase.
``I worry most about beginners who've never fished before. Where do they go? To the piers and head boats,'' said Outer Banks Pier owner Garry Oliver. ``If we have to ask them each to buy a license, they might never enter the sports fishing industry. At least, with a blanket fee, we could just increase our admission costs by $1 per person and they wouldn't have to deal with it.''
Smith agreed. ``A blanket permit for us would eliminate some of the logistical problems of issuing licenses,'' he said. ``But a $5 permit they have to buy on top of the charter boat fees might make them consider doing something else instead of fishing. Maybe that's what you all want.''
Committee members said that never was their intention. Some questioned whether a $5 license really would intimidate people who pay up to $825 a day to charter off-shore boats. But most in the audience replied that the recreational fishing license would hurt individuals fishing from shore or piers the most.
``A poor man's food has become a rich man's sport,'' said John Oakes, who owns the Quarterdeck Restaurant in Frisco and said he opposes a saltwater sports fishing license. ``People come to the Outer Banks to catch - and eat - fresh seafood.''
Some commercial fishermen who said they arrived at Thursday's meeting supporting the idea of recreational anglers having to buy a license changed their mind after several speakers said such a permit would help sports fishermen form a stronger lobby against those who land seafood for a living.
Others suggested that only out-of-state anglers should have to pay to fish in North Carolina's waters. But Lucas said the law prohibits that. If any anglers must buy a recreational fishing license, he said, all of them must.
``We're already taxed on meals, lodging, property - everything but air,'' said Nags Head resident Chuck Thompson. ``Please don't tax our last free resource.''
In other business Thursday, members of the North Carolina Moratorium Steering Committee decided that they would:
Vote by June on recommended changes to commercial and recreational fishing licenses, gear regulations, law enforcement activities, habitat issues and the structure of the state's Marine Fisheries Commission;
Hold 15 to 20 public hearings on the recommended rule changes in various locations across the state this summer;
Send final recommendations to the General Assembly's Seafood and Aquaculture Committee by September.
Committee members also discussed:
Finding a way for North Carolina's Marine Fisheries Commission to veto development and discharge permits that they think would hurt marine habitat and water quality;
Developing a 24-hour hot line for people to report water quality violations;
Lowering the number of Marine Fisheries Commission members from 17 representatives to nine. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
DREW C. WILSON/The Virginian-Pilot
John McGee, left, of Frisco, fights a tuna while Rich Novak steadies
his chair. Soon, this could cost $15 extra.
Graphic
TO GET A COPY
To obtain a copy of the North Carolina Moratorium Steering
Committee's recommended changed to the commercial and recreational
fishing industry, or to comment on any of the proposed rules, call
the state Division of Marine Fisheries, (800) 682-2632 or (919)
726-7021.
by CNB