DATE: Sunday, October 5, 1997               TAG: 9710050087

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: ROANOKE ISLAND                    LENGTH:   89 lines

WATERMEN, ANGLERS AT ODDS OVER BILLFISH EACH GROUP CLAIMS THE OTHER DOES THE MOST HARM TO THE PRIZED STOCK.

If commercial fishermen can't catch and sell billfish, sports fishermen shouldn't be allowed to kill the prized game fish in tournaments.

That's what a group of Outer Banks watermen told recreational anglers during a heated meeting Friday night at the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island.

``While commercial fishermen are taking steps to minimize their impacts on overfished species such as blue and white marlin, sports fishing tournaments are placing substantial cash bounties on the heads of these fish,'' Wanchese waterman Willie Etheridge said.

``We don't begrudge the big-game anglers their sport. And we certainly don't deny them or charter captains their right to fish. But these tournaments are a high-stakes form of gambling with literally millions of dollars in incentives for them to catch and kill overexploited marlin.

``These few wealthy recreational fishermen want all these fish for themselves.''

Commercial watermen have not been allowed to catch marlin or sailfish since 1989. Federal fisheries laws prohibited those catches to improve Atlantic billfish stocks. If marlin wind up on longline hooks while fishermen are targeting tuna or other species, the billfish have to be thrown back into the ocean - whether they're dead or alive.

Sports fishermen, however, say longliners - who set 10- to 20-mile lines equipped with up to 1,000 hooks - are still killing too many billfish.

Information passed out by officials at Pirate's Cove Marina in Manteo said the longline industry ``is guilty of reducing Atlantic billfish populations by (three-fourths) of what is considered healthy levels of abundance.''

Recreational anglers, the marina officials say, ``practice conservation by releasing over 90 percent of all billfish hooked.''

That's still killing marlin, the commercial fishermen reply.

A single 73-pound white marlin, for example, recently was killed during a Maryland sports fishing tournament - and the angler received $416,890 for his trophy fish.

During three recreational tournaments in New Jersey, Maryland and North Carolina, anglers reported killing 51 billfish - and earned more than $750,000 for their catch.

The prizes come from entry fees and sponsors.

``Recreational anglers between Maine and Virginia catch more than 700,000 billfish annually. While commercial fishermen catch fewer than 200,000 in that same area, during the same year,'' said John Hoey, a biologist for the National Fisheries Institute, which represents commercial seafood processors. ``We just want the sports fishermen to be accountable for what they kill.''

During a sampling of 2,674 longline sets in the same area last year, commercial fishermen caught zero to two white marlin 95 percent of the time; zero to two blue marlin 98 percent of the time and zero to two sailfish 97 percent of the time, Hoey said.

``We're not out there slaughtering large numbers of fish,'' he assured the 75 people in the audience.

Sports fishermen say that even though they're allowed to catch and keep billfish, they voluntarily release marlin and sailfish - except the biggest ones, which are brought in for judging in tournaments.

``During six years, anglers at Pirate's Cove have caught 1,110 billfish. But only six blue marlin - each weighing more than 400 pounds - have been brought to the docks,'' Pirate's Cove spokesman Barry Martin said. ``The rest have been released back to sea.''

Hoey replied, however, that between 18 and 35 percent of marlin that are released die anyway.

Commercial fishermen also complained that other countries are allowed to catch and keep as many billfish as they can - then sell those expensive fish back to United States seafood processors.

``We're curtailing our fishermen. But we're not really enforcing the efforts of other nations fishing for these same, highly migratory fish,'' said Rick Marks, a biologist with the North Carolina Fisheries Association, which represents commercial watermen. ``The U.S. has gone overboard. We need a level playing field for our fishermen.''

During other discussions Friday, fishermen asked federal officials to fight harder to get North Carolina a fair share of the bluefin tuna quota. Thousands of huge bluefin tuna, some weighing more than 1,000 pounds, have been schooling off Hatteras Island for the past five winters.

But because the Tar Heel State hasn't had a traditional fishery for these high-priced fish, commercial watermen haven't been allowed to target any bluefin tuna, and recreational anglers can only keep one fish per boat per day during their two-month winter season.

``If the federal bluefin quota is not expanding,'' National Marine Fisheries Service spokeswoman Rebecca Lent said, ``most fishermen don't want the fishery to expand geographically.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color file photo

DREW C. WILSON/The Virginian-Pilot

Watermen say big-game anglers shouldn't be allowed to kill billfish

such as this white marlin, as long as commercial restrictions exist.

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