THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 13, 1996 TAG: 9606130416
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NAGS HEAD LENGTH: 84 lines
Members of the area's most politically active recreational fishing group have decided to deep-six their affiliation with the state organization.
On June 30, the Outer Banks chapter of the Atlantic Coast Conservation Association will dissolve.
Local members say that disagreements about financial obligations to the state group prompted them to vote to disband entirely rather than continue to work with the group they joined after forming the chapter in 1991.
``It came to the point where we had to do what the state said or de-activate entirely,'' Outer Banks Coastal Conservation Association President Wayne Lee said. ``The state organization has hired additional staff and they want more money at the state level and less for the chapters. It would be very difficult for us to operate with the amount of money they wanted us to keep.''
A private, nonprofit fishery conservation organization with 3,500 members statewide, the Atlantic Coast Conservation Association of North Carolina aims to ``promotethe protection and enhancement of marine resources . . . and be a unified voice for saltwater fishermen,'' according to the group's mission statement.
Members - almost all of whom are sports fishermen - lobby for changes in commercial and recreational fishing rules. And they speak out at public hearings on issues from fishing seasons to minimum size limits to net sizes and requirements to commercial and recreational quotas and even closures of certain areas to commercial catches.
The Outer Banks chapter of the ACCA has 220 members. Some of them may decide to remain within the state group after the local organization folds, Lee said. Others will disassociate themselves from the ACCA entirely.
In the past five years, Outer Banks ACCA members have worked to achieve net-free zones at Cape Hatteras, on the north side of Oregon Inlet and in the northern eight miles of Nags Head; have helped ban menhaden boats from near-shore areas along the coast from Oregon Inlet to the Currituck County line, and have represented recreational anglers on a variety of state, regional and national fisheries management panels.
Local ACCA members split with the state group a couple of years ago over the menhaden issue. State ACCA members were trying to work for rule changes through the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission. Outer Banks anglers were pushing for state legislation instead. Other policy divisions also have occurred between the Outer Banks group and its state sponsor. But Lee insists that those rifts did not prompt his chapter members to vote unanimously to disband.
``Chapters are primarily for fund-raising. And they wanted us to keep just 10 percent of the money we made,'' Lee said. ``We pay $25 in dues to the national organization already. And we hold banquets and raffles here to raise money each summer. In 1995, I'd estimate that our Outer Banks group brought in about $10,000.''
Some of that money was spent on a chapter newsletter, some on posters and promotions and some on chapter operations, Lee said. ``We had an idea of something else we wanted to do with the local money - like raffle off a week's vacation cottage to sell more raffle tickets and raise more money. But we wouldn't have been able to do that if we had to give almost everything back to the state.''
Dick Brame, executive director of the North Carolina ACCA, said state board members need to retain control over how all funds are dispersed within his organization - even at the local level.
``I hate to see a chapter go,'' Brame said Tuesday. ``But this isn't a new event. It's all a matter of goals.''
Since February, the state ACCA has hired a full-time secretary and part-time public relations coordinator - both of whom require additional funds for salaries. Brame is the group's full-time director - and the only other employee paid by the primarily volunteer organization. He said at least four of the Outer Banks chapter members already have contacted him about remaining as at-large members of the state group.
Lee said disbanding the local chapter will not affect his - or other Outer Banks ACCA members' - ability to serve on state, regional or national fisheries management boards.
``I fully intend to continue working on fishery management issues,'' Lee said.
North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission member Curtis Donaldson, who represents recreational fishermen on the state policy-setting panel, said even without the state ACCA behind them, Lee and other Outer Banks ACCA members will continue to influence fisheries management issues.
``I have a lot of respect for Wayne Lee and (Nags Head angler) Norm Bradford,'' said Donaldson, a Weldon resident who does not belong to the ACCA. ``I don't always agree with them. But I think they've earned enough credibility on their own so that they can make their views well known.
``Not being affiliated with the state ACCA will not affect their impact on policy - at least not in my opinion.'' by CNB