Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 12, 1993 TAG: 9301120018
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
COMMERCIAL, SPORT FISHERMEN AT ODDS OVER BLUEFISH
Marvin Donsky is a Philadelphia lawyer, the kind of tourist the businessmen in Nags Head, N.C., like to see come to their shores."Each year my wife and I spend five days in Nags Head," said Donsky, who likes to wade into the surf and cast to bluefish that appear and disappear in the swelling waves with no apparent logic.
The way Donsky figures it, he and his wife contribute up to $1,500 annually to the local economy in motel, restaurant, grocery store and tackle shop expenditures. That doesn't count what is spent by the friends they bring.
But Donsky has warned the town fathers in Nags Head that this feathering of their nest will decrease unless something is done about commercial netters.
Scores of other sport fishermen have sent the same message. Many are expected to repeat it when they crowd into the Nags Head firehouse Saturday for a public meeting to air the issue.
Conflicts between commercial and sport fishermen aren't new along the stormy Outer Banks of North Carolina, but seldom have they been as intense.
The issue began to boil on Dec. 2 when a few hundred anglers were casting to blitzing bluefish. Commercial netters moved in and dragged nearly 3,000 pounds of fish from the surf. The catch was reportedly sold for 4 cents a pound.
The sport fishermen were furious. It didn't help when the commercial fishermen got on their CBs the next couple of days to suggest that the tourist anglers go home.
Less than a week later, sport fishermen were meeting with the Nags Head Board of Commissioners. Saturday's hearing is a result of that exchange.
The conflict has stimulated letters from as far away as Boston, where Rip Cunningham, editor-in-chief of SaltWater Sportsman Magazine wrote: "It does not take advanced calculus to figure out that hundreds of recreational fishermen spending $300 a day for a chance to catch fish is far more lucrative than the value of several dozen haul seine crews catching and selling bluefish for pennies a pound."
"It wouldn't matter if the bluefish fetched dollars per pound," said Joel Arrington, a freelance writer from Raleigh, N.C., who has touted Outer Banks fishing in scores of publications. "The injustices of one user group being permitted to snatch the public resource from under the feet of another should not be tolerated."
The criticism didn't end in Nags Head. It spread onto the 70-mile long Cape Hatteras National Seashore south of town. Last week, national park officials quickly called sport and commercial fishermen together for an invitation-only meeting.
About 75 attended, the sport fishermen sitting on one side of the room, the commercial fishermen on the other. Park officials reminded everyone that when the national seashore was established 55 years ago federal legislation mandated that village residents have the right to earn a living by commercial fishing. However, that right would be subject to rules and regulations.
Both sides agreed now is the time for some rules.
"I think that the commercial fishermen want to work with the recreational anglers, but they want rules that they can live with," said Asa Gray, a commercial proponent.
Most likely, several net-free zones will be established in the future. Before the meeting ended, both sides had agreed to close the "Pond" to commercial fishermen, a hook-shaped, 8-acre body of water formed by shifting sands at the north end of Oregon Inlet. It is an excellent area for catching trout.
"Let them have it," one commercial fishermen said when some of his peers balked at the idea. "It will keep them [sport fishermen] off the beaches."
But with the Nags Head meeting nearing, some netters wondered where the regulations would go from there.
"What are you going to take away from us next?" one asked. "It's already hard for us to earn a living."