THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 15, 1995 TAG: 9508150251
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
Membership of a legislative study committee that will play a key role in the future of the state's coastal fishing industry began to take shape this week as Senate leader Marc Basnight announced his appointments to the panel.
Sen. Charles W. Albertson, a Duplin County Democrat, was reappointed by Basnight to head the Joint Legislative Commission on Seafood and Aquaculture. He will co-chair the commission with Rep. Jean R. Preston, a Carteret County Republican, appointed earlier by House Speaker Harold J. Brubaker.
Albertson will be joined on the panel by Sens. Luther H. Jordan Jr., a New Hanover County Democrat; Beverly M. Perdue, a Craven County Democrat; and Robert G. Shaw, a Guilford County Republican.
The commission is composed of House and Senate members and members of the state's fishing and aquaculture industries. The panel studies fishing and aquaculture-related issues between General Assembly sessions.
Members are expected to hold their first meeting in September and will continue to meet monthly until the General Assembly reconvenes in May 1996 for its so-called ``short session'' when lawmakers will receive reports from the study committee.
Shaw's appointment brings the total number of Republican legislators on the committee to five andthe number of Democratic legislators on the committee to four.
House members serving on the committee include Reps. Zeno L. Edwards, a Beaufort County Republican; W. Robert Grady, an Onslow County Republican; and John M. Nichols, a Craven County Republican.
Edwards, a retired dentist, replaced Rep. William T. Culpepper III, a Chowan County Democrat, who was removed from the commission earlier in the session by Brubaker.
At the time, Edwards said Brubaker made the change after agriculture Commissioner Jim Graham named Rep. E. David Redwine, a Brunswick County Democrat and former co-chairman of the study commission, as one of his representatives to the panel.
The study commission members are expected to play a key role in coastal fisheries issues in 1996 when the Blue Ribbon Advisory Council on Oysters and the fisheries Moratorium Steering Committee, are scheduled to report their findings.
It is also scheduled to study over the next nine months whether the state should withdraw from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, a 15-state compact that develops management plans for fish that migrate along the Atlantic Coast. by CNB