THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 2, 1996 TAG: 9611020294
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PAUL SOUTH, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NAGS HEAD LENGTH: 61 lines
In the face of strong opposition from angry commercial crabbers, the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission on Friday unanimously rejected a proposed prohibition on the taking of white line peeler crabs from June 15 to Dec. 31.
Fishermen said the regulation would have destroyed the crabbing industry.
``If you cut out white line peelers, you'll put us out of business,'' said Dana Beasley. ``The problem comes when people get blue crabs here and sell them as peelers out of state.''
Another crabber, Phil Haywood, agreed.
``The boys here in Dare County are opposed to it,'' Haywood said. ``We can't live with it.''
Peeler crabs are immature hard crabs that exhibit signs of impending shedding or molting. Unlike other varieties of the species, such as blue crabs, peeler crabs are exempt from the 5-inch minimum size limits. Fishermen use color changes to determine the time to the next molt or shedding of the shell.
Crab shedding operations collect peelers and hold them in tanks until they molt to soft crabs, a popular dish among consumers. Because of concerns over a high shedding mortality rate, the ban was being considered.
Jess Hawkins, a biologist for the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries, said more hard data on peeler mortality was needed before any further regulatory action would be taken.
``We need information about the mortality rate,'' Hawkins said. ``Until that time, we don't recommend a change in the rule.''
In a crab-related issue, the commission voted to allow unattended crab pots to remain in the water for 10 days, maintaining the current regulation. The Division of Marine Fisheries had wanted to change the allowance to seven days, contending that unattended pots continue to capture fish, contributing to unnecessary death and waste of the resource.
``Seven or 10 days really doesn't make a lot of difference,'' said commission member Sherrill Styron of Oriental. ``A man who leaves his pots out there for seven days probably isn't going to fish it in 10.''
The regulation provides for a ``hardship clause'' in the event of mechanical malfunction.
The commission also approved decreasing the culling allowance for blue crabs from 15 percent of catch to 10 percent of catch. This means that all but 10 percent of undersized crabs must be returned to the water. However, concerns for the safety of watermen in choppy sound waters led to the defeat of a provision that would have required them to sort undersized crabs from their haul on site, instead of at the docks.
``A lot of these operations are one-man (or) one-woman operations,'' Norman Bradford said. ``We don't want people getting hurt.''
In other action, the commission granted authority to Division of Marine Fisheries Director Bruce Freeman to determine a trip limit for summer flounder fishermen. Because fishermen harvested fish well above the federal flounder quota, the fall flounder fishing season was canceled.
This year, North Carolina reached its flounder quota in March. The National Marine Fisheries Service and the state closed the Atlantic flounder season for the remainder of the year.
Freeman said he plans to meet with industry leaders to determine what the limit will be.
The commission will conclude two days of meetings today.
KEYWORDS: CRABBING BAN LIMITS by CNB