THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 26, 1994 TAG: 9406260255
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BOB HUTCHINSON
DATELINE: 940626 LENGTH: HATTERAS, N.C.
You don't have to kill one of the ocean's most marvelous creatures to have it as the centerpiece for a successful fishing contest.
{REST} This year, for the first time in its 35 years, the prestigious Hatteras tournament is strictly a ``release'' event. To score, all billfish must be set free, hopefully to provide another thrill for another angler on another day.
It's the same format adopted several years ago by the Virginia club, sponsor of the annual Labor Day weekend Virginia Beach Marlin Tournament.
The Hatteras Marlin Club, sponsor of the North Carolina event, has been moving steadily toward an all-release contest for several years. The first step was requiring all white marlin and sailfish to be set free. The second was establishing a 400-pound minimum qualifying weight for blue marlin, the largest billfish and one of the largest game fish in the Atlantic.
Now comes word that Hatteras Harbor Marina, a commercial marina just down the creek from the marlin club, will follow that format next year.
``We considered it this year,'' said owner John Coleman, ``but it was just too late. We were too far along in planning. But I feel pretty confident that we'll be an all-release tournament for 1995.''
Coleman said the marina-sponsored tournament, which opens Tuesday and runs through Friday, had killed and weighed only nine billfish in its 12 years.
By contrast, nine marlin, out of a total of 98 caught, were killed and weighed in the recent Big Rock Tournament at Morehead City, N.C.
The bottom line is that recreational fishermen who condone ``kill tournaments'' appear to be talking out of both sides of their mouths. One side says it's OK to kill billfish, needlessly, in the name of competition. The other blasts commercial fishermen for killing fish that are going to be sold and eaten.
The bottom line is that it is no longer acceptable to kill a billfish, certainly one of the ocean's most splendid creatures, in the name of competition.
Unfortunately, with the Big Rock offering more than $500,000 in prizes, as does the White Marlin Open set for Ocean City, Md., later this year, catching a fish becomes secondary to winning the loot.
If you want to gamble, try the blackjack tables at Atlantic City or the slot machines in Las Vegas. Let the gamblers gamble and the fishermen fish.
NOT ALL BAD: Not everything was bad about the Big Rock tournament at Morehead City.
For one thing, interviews with some Virginia contestants revealed that the hospitality, tournament functions and overall organization were without parallel.
For another, tournament officials contributed $10,000 and contestants another $65,000 to the Chris Bowie Memorial Fund.
Bowie, 29, a mate on one of the fishing boats, was pulled overboard and drowned while trying to release a blue marlin. The fish lunged, jerking Bowie over the side after he had wrapped a wire hook-leader around his hand.
Coleman, who runs the Hatteras Harbor tournament, said plans were to donate 10 percent of his tournament's fees to the fund.
SLOW LEARNERS? It seems as though the panel of scientists that advises East Coast fishery managers, as well as the managers themselves, may be slow learners.
When the coast's striped bass population fell on hard times more than a decade ago, Virginia and some other states banned all saltwater striper fishing. The ban lasted almost two years in Virginia.
But thousands of stripers still were needlessly killed when they were caught in various types of nets.
Commercial fishermen were appalled that they had to toss the dead fish overboard, when the stripers could have been given to charitable organizations, could have been food for the needy.
Those fish could have been saved by requiring the netters to take their rigs out of the water at certain times of the year.
Now fishery managers are grappling with how to create a turnaround in the East Coast's gray trout or weakfish fishery, also on hard times. And again the scientists who advise the managers are not suggesting days of no-netting by commercial men or calling for closed seasons for recreational fishermen.
Both approaches would save a lot of fish. Instead, those fish are going to die, going to be wasted.
Tuesday, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission is expected to vote on trout plans that would limit the number and size of fish that rod-and-reelers may catch and keep and would establish seasons when pound-netters, gill-netters haul-seiners and other commercial fishermen would not be allowed to keep gray trout.
The feeling here is that a lot of trout reeled up from deep water are not going to survive, as are most gray trout caught in gill nets and haul seines.
And pound-net fishermen have long argued that it is impossible to cull their fish while still alive in the net. The question must be asked: Are the fishery managers and their scientists trying to manage gray trout for the good of the resource or for the economic well-being of fishermen?
Certainly it would be financially damaging to net fishermen if they were required to take their rigs out of the water for prescribed periods.
But what about requiring them to remove some of their nets? Besides, how long is the commercial fisherman going to last if there are no fish to catch? Is it that fishery managers can't see tomorrow because they are too busy looking at today?
These are valid questions, just as is the question: Are we managing fisheries for the economics of a few or for the future of a public resource which actually belongs to everyone?
THE AGENDA: Tuesday's meeting of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission should be one of the most interesting in quite some time.
For one thing, the commission is expected to approve public hearings on the gray trout plan, supposedly designed to reduce the catch 25 percent this year and 80 percent in 1995.
Also on the agenda are public hearings and final votes on proposals that would limit the use of gill nets around cerain creek entrances on the Eastern Shore bayside and establish seasons when gill-net mesh sizes between 3 3/4 inches and 8 inches would not be allowed in Western Shore tributaries.
The commission is also expected to call for public hearings on proposed 1994 striped bass regulations. Proposals include eliminating the 36-inch size maximum, increasing recreational fishing days from 32 to 47 and increasing the commercial quota from 211,000 pounds to 317,000 pounds.
Fishery items will be heard at noon at commission headquarters at 2600 Washington Ave., Newport News.
SHORT CASTS: Daniel Hall of Chesapeake has earned a citation award from the Key West, Fla., fishing tournament by releasing a blue marlin. He was aboard the Miss Casey with skipper Jim Williams. . . . Kenny Keeter of Virginia Beach won the tuna division annual Bluefish-Tuna Tournament staged out of Virginia Beach by the Atlantic Coast Conservation Association. His winning fish on the Lonesome Dove weighed 29.65 pounds. Eddie Harwell of Virginia Beach was second with a 23.75-pound entry from the Liquid Assets and Victor Cross of Virginia Beach was third at 23.50 on the Trollin' One. No bluefish were entered. . . . A reminder to anglers fishing for big black drum at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel: It's illegal to use treble hooks to snag any saltwater fish in the state, as some anglers have been doing. . . . Curtis Badger of Onley, Va., has authored a delightful little book which should be of value to anyone interested in birds. It's titled ``A Birdwatcher's Guide to Virginia's Eastern Shore'' and covers most species found on the various federal and state wildlife refuges and state and local parks on the Shore, as well as on the oceanfront islands which are a part of The Nature Conservancy's Virginia Coast Reserve. Signed copies of the 56-page guide are available for $6.95, plus $2 shipping and handling, from: Salicornia Press, P.O. Box 580, Onley, Va. 23418. It's a solid investment. by CNB