THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 10, 1994 TAG: 9412100215
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
The state's top-ranking fisheries official said Friday he is confident that North Carolina lawmakers will approve a saltwater-fishing license for sports anglers.
But that approval may take more than one year, said Robert V. Lucas, chairman of the state Marine Fisheries Commission.
The commission is a 17-member board which sets policy for the state's coastal fishing industry.
``It's an education process,'' Lucas said Friday. ``I think the license will be approved as part of the moratorium study committee's package of recommendations.''
The committee studying coastal fishing rules as part of a two-year moratorium on the sale of commercial-fishing licenses is scheduled to submit its final report to the legislature in 1996.
Lucas was optimistic about the plan to require sports anglers to buy licenses to fish in state waters, even though the proposal fell off the fast track earlier this week.
On Wednesday, a state legislative panel studying seafood and aquaculture issues did not include a bill enacting such a license in its report to the General Assembly.
The panel approved a resolution supporting the concept of a license, but only as part of a package of recommended changes to coastal fishing policy.
The new policies will be developed by the moratorium study committee.
The panel's action means that to be considered in the 1995 session, a coastal sports-fishing license would have to be introduced by an individual legislator - not the study committee.
Senate leader Marc Basnight, a Manteo Democrat who had traveled the coast to support the license and a plan for spending its proceeds, said Friday he favors waiting to introduce the measure as part of a package in 1996.
``I agree with the plan to introduce it as part of the moratorium study committee report,'' Basnight said in an interview.
The vote by the legislative panel culminated a one-year review requested by the General Assembly of the need for a saltwater fishing license and the form such a license should take.
Sports anglers who fish the state's inland waters have been required to buy licenses for about 50 years.
But sports fishermen are not required to buy licenses to fish in the state's salty coastal waters.
The state Marine Fisheries Commission voted last weekend to endorse the license as one step to help restore and protect the state's fish populations.
The commission approved a resolution similar to the one approved by the legislative study panel, asking the General Assembly to create a coastal-fishing license as part of the larger review of the state's coastal fishing industry.
The resolution will be presented to the General Assembly along with an outline of specific license proposals. ILLUSTRATION: FISHERIES PROPOSALS
These ideas will be recommended to the General Assembly in January:
Appropriate $263,718 for the state's shellfish-lease program.
Appropriate $80,000 for the Marine Fisheries Commission for two
staff positions and $10,000 for temporary clerical positions.
Appropriate $1.28 million for the Division of Marine Fisheries law
enforcement section for seven new positions, law-enforcement
equipment and other costs.
Appropriate $177,303 for the state's shellfish-mapping program.
Appropriate $350,000 for the state's shellfish-enhancement program.
Extend to aquaculture tax breaks that now apply to agriculture.
Source: N.C. Joint Legislative Commission on Seafood and
Aquaculture.
KEYWORDS: NORTH CAROLINA MARINE FISHERIES COMMISSION
by CNB