THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 24, 1995 TAG: 9509240049
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WILMINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
The stocks of herring in Albemarle-area rivers have improved somewhat in the past year, but not enough to justify lifting a controversial ban on fishing for them in most of April, say most state fisheries officials.
Late Friday, the state Marine Fisheries Commission rejected a proposal by members of the Albemarle Fishermen's Association that would have allowed some herring fishing through May 5 in the Albemarle Sound and in the Roanoke and Chowan rivers. April is one of the industry's busiest months.
The plan called for fishermen using pound nets west of the N.C. Route 32 bridge across the Albemarle Sound to drop one corner of each net on weekends from April 15 to May 5 to allow herring to escape.
Proponents said the compromise would lets fishermen keep making a living from the state's oldest fishing industry, while protecting the herring population, which state fisheries biologists consider to be stressed.
Opponents said fisheries biologists had not seen enough of a recovery in the herring population over the past year to justify the increased fishing.
``We finally are making progress,'' said commission member W. Kurt Ficking of Greenville. ``I don't see how, in good conscience, we can do that with a stock that has essentially collapsed.''
The commission deadlocked 7-7 over whether to add the association's proposal to the list of about 20 proposed rules that will be the subject of public hearings along the coast this fall.
The vote means that last year's ban will remain in 1996 while commission members and several Albemarle-area industries press for improvements in water quality.
Commission Chairman Robert V. Lucas, who voted against the ban last year, cast the vote that deadlocked the panel. Afterward, he said, ``We have to give management decisions time to work.''
In a report to the commission before the vote, fisheries biologists said mortality of herring had declined slightly during the past year, the average size of herring had increased somewhat in recent months, and pressure from fishermen had declined. But, the report said, reproduction remains dangerously low and mortality rates continue to be too high to ensure a viable herring stock.
Herring fishermen say the ban has ended commercial herring fishing on the Chowan River and has penalized them for a decline in the state's herring catch, even though they did not cause that decline.
Commission member Linnie D. Perry of Washington, who holds a financial interest in a Colerain herring operation, abstained from Friday's vote. by CNB