THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 2, 1996 TAG: 9608020438
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: BEAUFORT LENGTH: 46 lines
A state panel approved three of five reports Thursday to revamp North Carolina's fisheries management, but saved the two most controversial for later.
Recommendations on habitat management, organization of the state fisheries division and law enforcement were approved. Reports on licenses and fishing gear will be considered today.
The five subcommittee reports were before the Fisheries Moratorium Steering Committee, which was appointed by the legislature.
Both the Division of Marine Fisheries and the state commission overseeing the division should be restructured, one report said. The fisheries director and executive staff should be moved from Morehead City to Raleigh and the commission should be reduced from 17 to nine members.
Jule Wheatly's motion to keep the director of the Division of Marine Fisheries in Morehead City failed. Wheatly and about six other committee members felt that the director needed to stay on the coast to stay in touch with fishing issues.
``We don't have any fisheries problems in Raleigh, they're all down here on the coast,'' said Wheatly, of Beaufort. ``It doesn't make sense to put the director in Raleigh, when his people are down here.''
Committee member Chuck Manooch of Beaufort said he felt the director could better communicate with the secretary of the state Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources.
Habitat management should be coordinated under an overall plan by the various state agencies that deal with coastal development, water quality and fish stocks, the habitat report said.
The law enforcement report made 17 recommendations, including a point system for violations similar to the point system used for driver's licenses.
Points for every violation would be added to licenses when tickets were issued. If an individual received 18 to 25 points in a three-year period, the license would be revoked for 30 days. If more than 36 points were acquired in a three-year period, the individual would lose their license for a year.
About 30 people, many of them state workers, attended the meeting at Duke University's marine lab.
The recommendations will go to a series of public meetings this month and September before the committee adopts a final package of recommendations to send to the legislature in November. by CNB