THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 24, 1995 TAG: 9509240058
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WILMINGTON LENGTH: Short : 45 lines
North Carolina's top fisheries official said a panel overseeing changes in state fisheries management will have enough time to study its research findings before it makes final recommendations to the General Assembly - even if it means taking a few extra months.
``We will take as long as we need,'' said Robert V. Lucas, chairman of the state Marine Fisheries Commission. ``Even if it means we continue to meet until the year 2000.'' A legislative committee had asked the panel to report its findings earlier than scheduled.
At the commission's meeting Thursday and Friday, Lucas repeatedly made that assurance to other commission members and members of the North Carolina Fisheries Association, the state's largest commercial fishing trade group.
Lucas is also chairman of the fisheries Moratorium Steering Committee, which is studying ways to improve North Carolina's fisheries management and boost the state's coastal fish populations.
``You don't want to rush this,'' Lucas told the Marine Fisheries Commission. ``You want something that commercial fishermen, recreational fishermen and scientists can stand behind and defend, because I can assure you it will have to be defended.''
Moratorium Steering Committee sources privately predicted on Friday that the panel will continue to meet through next summer and make its final recommendations to the General Assembly in October instead of May as originally planned.
At its first meeting this month in Raleigh, the Joint Legislative Commission on Seafood and Aquaculture asked the Moratorium Steering Committee to hasten its work and report its findings to the legislature about a month earlier than planned. The joint commission will be the first stop for the steering committee's recommendations in what could be a two-year journey through the General Assembly.
Legislators said that if their panel is to seriously consider the recommendations, and draft legislation to implement them for its next session, it needs the final recommendations no later than mid-April. by CNB