THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 6, 1996 TAG: 9601060268
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
State officials will not audit the Marine Fisheries Endowment Fund or the Marine Conservation Fund, North Carolina Deputy Auditor Wesley Ray said Friday.
The North Carolina Fisheries Association had requested an official audit of those funds ``so that a proper accounting can be given to both the recreational and commercial fishermen.''
``Until two weeks ago, no one even knew that those funds existed,'' said Bob Peele, a spokesman for the North Carolina Fisheries Association, which includes more than 1,000 members and lobbies for commercial fishing interests. ``We made all kinds of calls about them. And nobody knew what we were talking about.''
Ray said because the funds only total $18,700, state officials decided it would not be worth their time to order an audit.
``They were not significant enough to the state's larger picture,'' the deputy auditor said from his Raleigh office. ``If we had any indications of wrongdoing, we would look into them.''
Created in 1987, the Marine Fisheries Endowment Fund receives income from gifts, grants and contributions that have been specifically earmarked for that fund. The endowment fund ``must be spent only in furthering the conservation of marine and estuarine resources.''
There is no money in the endowment, Division of Marine Fisheries spokesperson Nancy Fish said.
The Marine Conservation Fund also was established in 1987. But it has received most of its money since 1991 when the Governor's Cup Billfish Tournament began earmarking $100 of each $150 registration fee for the conservation fund. The fund can only be spent for ``marine and estuarine conservation and management.''
The conservation fund has a balance of $18,700, Fish said. Since 1991, a total of 187 boats have participated in the billfish tournament. So at $100 per boat, the fund's balance matches the tournament contributions.
Fish added, however, that several businesses also have given money to the conservation fund as corporate sponsors of the billfish tournament. ``Different groups have donated money in the past for conservation purposes. And that all has been put into this fund,'' said Fish. ``Individuals also can - and have - donated money.''
Since Sept. 1994, Fish said 24 checks have been written from the conservation fund. North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission Chairman Robert Lucas is the only one who writes those checks, Fish said. The Division of Marine Fisheries' new budget and personnel manager, Suzanne Guthrie, said state statutes don't require anyone else to approve payments from that fund.
Fisheries Association Director Jerry Schill said he is ``too shocked by the news that public money is held in so low regard to make a comment at this time.''
Fish said Lucas has promised to deliver all the accounting books on the conservation fund to her office by Monday so that the deposits and payments can be made public.
In other fisheries news, the North Carolina Attorney General's office has signed onto a lawsuit against U.S. Secretary of Commerce Ronald H. Brown over the federal ban on harvesting weakfish.
The North Carolina Fisheries Association, the Virginia Beach-based East Coast Fisheries Association, George's Seafood of Norfolk, Fos-Fish commercial fishing company of Hatteras Island, and two other North Carolina commercial fishing companies filed suit against Brown last month in U.S. District Court in Norfolk.
The suit says the federal government had no right to close offshore waters of the Atlantic Ocean to commercial catches of weakfish. In late November, the commerce secretary approved a rule banning weakfish harvests in the Atlantic between three and 200 miles offshore. That rule went into effect Dec. 21.
But on Dec. 20, in response to the suit, a federal judge ruled that the ban could not be implemented in North Carolina, where 70 percent of the nation's weakfish are caught annually.
Also known as gray trout, weakfish are the second most valuable finfish netted in North Carolina.
The judge's ruling granted a temporary injunction against the ban only in North Carolina. He is scheduled to hear arguments Feb. 8 in Norfolk on the legitimacy of the ban. In the meantime, state regulations will keep fishermen from casting flynets for weakfish south of Cape Hatteras, where most are found during the key winter harvest.
Although the state supports the fisheries association's suit, North Carolina officials don't agree entirely with the commercial fishermen's positions, said Special Deputy Attorney General Thomas F. Moffitt, who co-authored the state's suit.
The federal government wants a complete ban on weakfish harvest, he said. Commercial watermen don't want any regulations. ``Our solution ends up being somewhere between those two positions,'' Moffitt said. ``We think the ban should fall so that our alternative can be implemented.''
Besides banning flynets south of Cape Hatteras, the state suit says the minimum weakfish size should be increased from 10 to 12 inches to allow the fish an extra year to reproduce.
Commercial fishermen don't want an increase in the minimum size. by CNB