THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 27, 1996 TAG: 9601270259
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MOREHEAD CITY LENGTH: Long : 101 lines
Responding to watermen's concerns, members of the state's Moratorium Steering Committee agreed Friday to rethink a proposal to license all commercial fishing gear.
Commercial fishermen said they'd rather pay a high price for a commercial fishing license that would allow them to use all their nets, pots and lines than have to pay a separate fee for each piece of equipment they use.
One waterman said under the ``license-all-gear system'' initially proposed, her family would end up paying $1,000 a year for commercial fishing and gear licenses. Suggested fees for a comprehensive commercial fishing license ranged from $500 to $1000.
Originally, some members of the steering committee said they wanted to require a separate license and fee for each piece of commercial fishing gear.
The idea, they said, was to allow them to measure how much commercial fishing effort was being placed on North Carolina's waters.
But watermen said they all own gear they don't use, so the process would not really give regulators a true idea of how much gear was used to land each load of fish.
``You could get a whole lot more information out of us if you had us just record that information on our trip tickets,'' commercial fisherman Jerry Wolff of Sea Level said. ``That way we could tell you exactly what we used to catch each load of fish we sell.''
Committee members Arden Moore, Susan West and Milvin Shepard agreed. ``Let them buy one license, Shepard said. ``Let's stop piecemealing this process and get it all under one permit.
``Figuring out catch per unit of effort is the only basis that will ever tell us whether our fish stocks really are up or down. Landings alone won't tell us that.''
After more than an hour of discussing, Moratorium Steering Committee Chairman Bob Lucas, who also chairs the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission, said trip tickets did appear to be the best way to gather the data researchers want, not gear licenses.
``I'm going back to the drawing board on this,'' Lucas said. ``I see a lot of holes in this licensing system as it's proposed now.''
Formed a year and a half ago to overhaul the state's recreational and commercial fishing systems, the steering committee is considering a myriad of new regulations, restrictions and licenses for fishing. Thursday the 19-member committee heard proposed changes for the first time. On Friday, committee members began debating the ideas during a six-hour meeting at the Crystal Coast Civic Center in Morehead City, which more than 60 people attended.
Lucas stressed that all of the recommendations are preliminary and that the public still has plenty of time to comment on the proposals. The North Carolina General Assembly is scheduled to vote on final recommendations in early 1997.
Besides revising the commercial fishing gear licensing system, changes to proposals that steering committee members discussed Friday include:
requiring elderly, handicapped, blind and poverty-level people to pay $15 for annual salt water sports fishing licenses. An earlier proposal said such anglers should be exempt from the full fee and pay just $5 each.
developing a separate license for crew members on commercial fishing boats. An earlier proposal suggested only watermen who sell fish themselves should have to buy commercial fishing licenses. But then the state would have no way of knowing how many people earn their livings off the water.
allowing fishermen to transfer or sell their commercial fishing licenses if they decide to stop working on the water. Earlier ideas suggested that licenses revert to the state instead.
counting landings sold from charter boats in separated categories from fish sold by commercial watermen.
``There seems to be a consensus that we need three categories of licenses,'' Lucas said, referring to a recreational saltwater fishing license; commercial fishing license; and a license for sports anglers who want to use commercial gear.
``There also seems to be a consensus that we should have some sort of cap on the number of licenses that could be sold in those last two categories.
``We'll never have a system that will please everyone,'' said Lucas. ``But hopefully, we'll come up with something that most people can at least accept.''
The emotional high point of Friday's meeting came when Lucas opened the floor to public comments. A candidate for the North Carolina House of Representatives stood up and started shouting.
``These people who've fished on North Carolina's waters all their lives are being run out of their rights to make a living because of all the damn hog farms on the river banks.'' Bill Harper of Havelock yelled. ``Government owns and supports those hog farms. But we're the people paying for the pollution they've caused.
``Stop regulating and taxing me and my children to death. You tell the government and the legislators that on election day in November, we're going to correct that river pollution problem.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
To receive copies of the Moratorium Steering Committee's
recommended changes to commercial and recreational fishing rules, or
to comment on any of the proposals, call Mike Street at the North
Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries, (919) 726-7021, or write him
at P.O. box 769, 3441 Arendell St., Morehead City, N.C. 28557, or
FAX him at (919) 726-0254.
KEYWORDS: WATERMEN LICENSE PROPOSED by CNB