THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 29, 1994 TAG: 9406290539
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB HUTCHINSON, OUTDOORS EDITOR
DATELINE: 940629 LENGTH: NEWPORT NEWS
The agency called for public hearings on the matter next month and also called for a public hearing July 29 on plans to basically increase the 1994 striped bass season by 50 percent over a year ago.
{REST} In other action, the commission ordered restrictions on gill-net fishing along the Chesapeake Bay's Western Shore but deferred action on a proposal for additional restrictions on the nets on the Eastern Shore bayside.
The voting members also decided to delay additional restrictions on catching blue crabs until more studies are completed and until a blue-ribbon panel can discuss the existing shortage of blue crabs, the Chesapeake's most valuable marine resource.
While dates for public hearings on the gray trout plan were not set, the final hearing, as well as the commission's vote on the plan, will be July 29, when the nine voting members meet again.
The trout plan offers two options for recreational fishermen:
A minimum size of 14 inches and a 10-fish limit.
A 10-inch minimum and a 3-fish limit. The present limits are 12 inches and 15 fish.
Commercial fishermen targeting gray trout, also known as weakfish, would fall under more-stringent regulations than now exist.
Pound-net fishermen, which surveys show catch 60 percent of the gray trout landed in the state, might have to give up some of their licenses if they have more than three licensed rigs. But they still would be allowed to land fish as small as 9 inches.
Gill-net and haul-seine fishermen would be subject to a 12-inch minimum but would not be able to land gray trout during certain times of the year.
Fishery experts say the restrictions are necessary if depleted gray trout populations are to recover to levels of the target years of the mid-1980s.
With the once-beleaguered striped bass now described as ``fully recovered'' by state and federal fishery experts, the proposed regulations are seen as a first step in a long-term relaxation of rules designed to keep the fishery from collapsing in the future as it did in the 1970s and 1980s.
The striper hearing will help fishery managers decide the dates for a 47-day season that will give recreational fishermen 15 more fishing days than in 1993.
It will also help them decide dates and other regulations for increasing the annual commercial catch of the popular rockfish to 317,000 pounds, from the 211,000 pounds allowed last year.
One proposal certain to sit well with recreational fishermen would eliminate mention of a 36-inch maximum size, so fishermen could keep trophy-size stripers. Last year's regulations allowed rod-and-reelers one fish in excess of 48 inches but none between 36 and 48 inches.
The proposed daily bag limit for anglers would remain at two fish and commercial fishermen still would have to tag all their stripers.
The commission will also consider allowing recreational fishermen to keep one rockfish a day in coastal waters out to 3 miles offshore, an area previously closed. The fish would have to be at least 28 inches long.
The commission approved changing it's July meeting date from the 26th to the 29th. by CNB