THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 14, 1995 TAG: 9512140366
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 43 lines
The judge saw yellow and James Barrie Gaskill gets to keep on fishing.
During a District Court case in Beaufort, Judge Kenneth Crow ruled that ``Saturn Yellow'' really is a shade of yellow - and, therefore, an acceptable color for commercial fishermen to paint their gill net floats.
Gaskill had painted his styrofoam buoys that color for more than a decade. But in October, a law enforcement officer with the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries charged the Ocracoke Island waterman with violating law
That law says ``two separate yellow buoys . . . no less than 5 inches in diameter'' must mark each gill net. Officer Raymond Nelson said Gaskill's floats looked green that autumn morning on the Pamlico Sound.
But when the 52-year-old waterman brought his buoys to court Tuesday, the judge saw things his way.
``The defendant brought his can of spray paint with him. And it said, `Yellow Something' on it. Some kind of yellow name. So the judge found him `Not Guilty' and dismissed that case,'' Clerk of Court Jodi Moser said Wednesday from her Carteret County office. ``He didn't have to pay any fines. And the whole thing was over pretty quick.''
Gaskill faced a $25 fine and $60 in court fees if he had been found guilty. He also could have lost his commercial fishing license because this was the second violation he had been charged with in less than a year. Last December, a fisheries law officer cited Gaskill with improper labeling on his pound nets less than two weeks after waves from Hurricane Gordon broke the stake that held his wooden name sign.
``He was really happy they found him not guilty of using the wrong shade of yellow paint,'' Gaskill's wife, Ellen, said Wednesday from Ocracoke Island. ``He was glad he didn't get fined. And he hurried out of there so he could catch the ferry in time to get home and set his nets.'' by CNB