THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, December 12, 1994 TAG: 9412120062
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
The search for a new director for the state Division of Marine Fisheries is taking longer than expected, according to one of the state's top environmental officials, but the state hopes to have a new fisheries chief by early next year.
``The eyes of North Carolina are on fisheries right now,'' said Joan Weld, assistant secretary for natural resources at the state Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources. ``But we truly believe that the timing is right to bring in somebody top flight.''
Weld heads a committee of commercial and recreational fishermen, academic interests, the division, the Marine Fisheries Commission and others appointed in July to search for a new director.
No time limit was given for that search, but state officials had hoped to find a new fisheries director by the end of 1994, she said in a recent interview.
The division has been the center of controversy and attention since fisheries Director William T. Hogarth left his post July 1 to accept a position with the National Marine Fisheries Service near Washington, D.C.
Bob Jamieson, 52, head of the division's regional office in Wilmington, has served as interim director of the division while the department conducts a nationwide search for Hogarth's successor.
Hogarth, 55, held the post of fisheries chief for eight years - longer than anyone else.
But during his last two years as director, Hogarth became a lightening rod for dissatisfaction with the division and with the population declines in many of the state's coastal fish species.
His departure led one state recreational fishing organization to claim that Hogarth was forced from the post by a group of state legislators from eastern North Carolina in exchange for increases this year in the division's appropriations - allegations denied by one coastal legislator and officials at the natural resources department.
The state's program of enforcing fisheries regulations has come under attack this year by scientists, fishermen and former fisheries regulators who say the Division of Marine Fisheries enforcement section is unorganized and inefficient in enforcing coastal fisheries regulations.
Only 47 enforcement officers cover 2.4 million acres of state waters and each of them is writing fewer than two tickets a month. And nearly one third of the division's boats are in disrepair, according to a recent report by The News & Observer in Raleigh.
In a report last month, the newspaper alleged that laws protecting the state's fishing industry have gone unenforced in northeastern North Carolina, the most productive section of the coast, largely because Senate leader Marc Basnight, a Manteo sewer and concrete contractor, used his political power to discourage ticketing of fishermen. Basnight has denied the charges.
Weld told the state Marine Fisheries Commission last weekend that search committee hopes to attract someone to head the agency that would be ``enticed into the challenge.''
Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. authorized an appropriation up to $50,000 to hire a consultant to help with the search and to seek out qualified people to augment the list of those who have applied for the job.
So far, the state has received more than 50 applications for the job.
Weld said she hopes that number can be pared down by Dec. 20.
``We recognize the timeliness,'' she said. by CNB