THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 18, 1995 TAG: 9509180036
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
The state's largest commercial fishing trade group announced Saturday that it will oppose legislative efforts to speed up the work of the fisheries Moratorium Steering Committee and will ask the state's top fisheries officials to join in that opposition.
Instead of speeding up the steering committee's work, the Joint Legislative Commission on Seafood and Aquaculture should seek a one-year extension, according to the N.C. Fisheries Association.
The association has written the legislative commission requesting the year to give the steering committee more time to incorporate the results of several independent studies of fisheries management practices into its recommendations, said Jerry Schill, executive director of the association.
And the association this week will ask the Marine Fisheries Commission, the 17-member panel that oversees the state's coastal fishing industry, to support the association's request, Schill said.
``This may be our last shot at straightening out what has been a continually botched attempt at preserving the resource and protecting the industry,'' Schill said in a statement released Saturday. ``Fishermen would rather have this process extended than to be handed a plan that does not include a effort to manage the fisheries in a fair, comprehensive and balanced manner.''
The fisheries association response to the new timetable raised concern this weekend from some Moratorium Steering Committee members and one key coastal legislator, who said commercial fishing's support for the committee's recommendations will be critical to their success.
``It's of grave concern for me for the fisheries association to voice doubts about the process,'' said Susan B. West, president of the Hatteras-Ocracoke Auxiliary of the N.C. Fisheries Association, and a steering committee member.
``There's going to have to be a consensus about the recommendations if we are to be successful and anything is going to be easier if commercial fishing people support it.''
Sen. Charles W. Albertson, the Duplin County Democrat who co-chairs the Joint Legislative Commission on Seafood and Aquaculture, said the fisheries association had raised some valid concerns which, they said, could hopefully be worked out by the steering committee, the fisheries commission and the legislative panel.
``It's a concern,'' he said. ``These folks are the people who are going to be affected by the steering committee recommendations.''
At a meeting in Raleigh last Tuesday, the Joint Legislative Commission on Seafood and Aquaculture asked the steering committee to hasten its work and report its findings a month earlier than planned.
The joint commission will be the first stop for the recommendations in what could be a two-year journey through the General Assembly.
Commission members said the panel needs the final recommendations no later than mid-April to have time to consider them and draft legislation to implement them.
The legislature is scheduled to convene May 13 for its so-called ``short session.''
Under the new timetable, the steering committee will report its preliminary findings in early March - before some of its research findings are available.
Schill said this could weaken the steering committee findings.
``The purpose of the studies is to give the Moratorium Steering Committee and its subcommittees additional information on which to base their recommendations,'' Schill said. ``Without an extension of time, the money paid to these independent consultants will be wasted and data that could prove invaluable in defining the future of the state's fisheries will be lost from the process.''
Moratorium Steering Committee Chairman Robert V. Lucas was out of the state this weekend.
But Lucas, who met with the joint legislative commission last week, said at the time that the new timetable would have little effect on the committee's findings and it could be ready to report by the revised date.
Although the research findings may not be available when the committee makes its preliminary recommendations, they can be incorporated into the steering committee's final report, Lucas said last week after the legislative committee's meeting Tuesday.
Most Moratorium Steering Committee members, however, said their findings could be compromised by the new schedule.
West said the steering committee may be able to make only general recommendations, and not specific proposals under the new timetable.
``I would think this would be a concern not only of the fisheries association but of the people of the state of North Carolina,'' she said. ``The moratorium committee recommendations have the potential to give North Carolina the best fisheries management program in the nation.'' by CNB