THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 27, 1995 TAG: 9505270428
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROANOKE ISLAND LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
For the past three years, Outer Banks charter boat captains have been limiting their passengers' catches to four yellowfin tuna per trip.
No one told the watermen to cap their catches. The captains just decided to help preserve the resource. They've been policing themselves - and leaving fish for their paying customers of the future.
Now, the federal government wants to impose a mandatory limit on the number of yellowfin tuna recreational anglers can keep.
The National Marine Fisheries Service has recommended no more than 10 fish per person per day. That's six fish more than the limits the captains already have set.
``Ten yellowfin is a ridiculously high number,'' Oregon Inlet Fishing Center manager Satch Smith told representatives of the National Marine Fisheries Service during a Thursday night meeting at the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island.
``We've never going to catch that many anyway. We've already proven we can - and do - limit ourselves. We don't need you all to do it for us.''
Charter boat Capt. Paul Spencer agreed. ``We've done exceptionally well without a federal mandate,'' he said.
``We're not catching any small fish. And we don't need a bag limit.''
Most of the 35 fishermen at the meeting agreed. Recreational anglers are not allowed to sell their catches. So most watermen said they don't need to keep any more than four fish each anyway.
``Conservation methods for that species already are in place. You're trying to create more problems by upping the limit we're already following,'' said Wanchese fishing advocate James Fletcher. ``Your yellowfin bag limit proposals are based entirely on incomplete data.''
National Marine Fisheries Service spokeswoman Rebecca Lent admitted that there is no federal quota on yellowfin tuna - and biologists don't really know how many of the prized fish recreational anglers catch each year. But federal fisheries officials want catches to remain at 1992 levels, she said.
``We want some kind of yellowfin cap to discourage people from selling them,'' Lent said Thursday night. ``There's no quota yet. But we don't want the efforts on yellowfin to get any higher.
``Right now, it's hard to measure what's happening to the yellowfin. We don't even know who is fishing for them. But there is a potential for increase in commercial yellowfin landings. So we're trying to limit that, too.''
Under recommended rules the National Marine Fisheries Service is considering, purse seiners would be limited to landing 376 metric tons of yellowfin tuna each year. Currently, there is no cap on the number of yellowfin commercial fishermen can catch and sell. American watermen catch about 4 percent of the international stock of yellowfin tuna.
Some recreational anglers said that until a limit is imposed on commercial yellowfin catches, the federal government should not cap recreational landings.
The Division of Marine Fisheries officials seem to agree.
``Our director was concerned about putting the 10 fish per man limit on yellowfin when there is no commercial limit,'' North Carolina Marine Fisheries spokesman Harrell Johnson said Thursday night. ``He also wanted to know why, if you're going to limit yellowfin, you don't limit the big eye tunas, too?''
Fishermen in the aquarium's conference room let out a collective groan when the biologist suggested imposing rules on yet another species of fish.
Federal fisheries officials did not respond to the suggestion. THE RULE CHANGE
The National Marine Fisheries Service is considering rule changes for the commercial and recreational yellowfin tuna fishery and for bluefin tuna.
To obtain a copy of these proposed changes - or comment on them - call (301)713-2370 or write: Richard B. Stone, chief of the Highly Migratory Species Division, Office of Fisheries Conservation and Management, National Marine Fisheries Service, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910.
Comments are due June 14.
KEYWORDS: COMMERCIAL FISHING by CNB