THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 10, 1996 TAG: 9604100362
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 114 lines
Last year, North Carolina officials shut down the herring season before the silver-scaled fish began to spawn. On April 15, 1995, watermen had to stop working pound nets pulled across the Chowan River. It was the first time any state had closed a herring season that early - and the last time many fishermen would work on the wide waterway.
This year, in an effort to keep the season open long enough for the fish to start showing up, a group of Albemarle-area watermen proposed a compromise: They would pull up more than half of their nets if the state would let them fish three weeks beyond the April 15 deadline. They would put less effort into catching the fish, but still have a shot a making a living.
The Marine Fisheries Commission agreed. On March 15, the 17-member body voted to allow state fisheries Director Bruce Freeman to extend the herring season if fewer than 100 pound nets were strung across the river. Commission members praised watermen for working with them to help save the fish.
Only 92 nets lined the Chowan last week.
But once fishermen started pulling their nets out of the river, they said Tuesday, their plans wound up dead in the water.
Even if Freeman decides to keep the herring season open past the Monday closure date - which he has yet to commit to - watermen won't be allowed to land more than 250,000 pounds of herring this year. That's all the fishermen caught last year before the early closure date. Watermen might get a few extra weeks to work - but they won't be permitted to profit from any more fish than they landed in 1995.
``We're trying hard to cut down. We pulled up seven sets this year and are working half as many as we did in 1994. But they're still sticking the shaft to us,'' said Tyner fisherman Herbert Byrum, who works with his brother, Bobby, and helped work out the compromise.
``We watched more than three million pounds of herring swim up this river last year - after April 15. Those biologists haven't got an idea what wasn't caught out there. All they know is what we landed, so that's all they're going to give us this year.''
Marine Fisheries biologist Sara Winslow said stock assessments show that North Carolina river herring are a stressed species. Landings from 1995 were only half of what was sold two years earlier. If watermen catch more than 250,000 pounds of fish this year, she said, the stocks may not be able to recover at a desirable rate.
``We really didn't determine what was out there after the season shut down last year,'' Winslow said. ``Our stock assessments are from independent net collections, based on the number of mature fish, size of the fish, number of juvenile fish and other factors.''
Marine Fisheries Commission Chairman Robert Lucas said although he voted to allow Freeman to extend the herring season, he doesn't remember ever discussing a limit on the number of pounds watermen would be allowed to keep.
``That was never discussed,'' Lucas said Tuesday from his Selma law office. ``We voted to let the director extend the season if the watermen removed some of their nets. But, as far as I recall, a quota never came up.
``The reason for the quota, as I understand it, is because some biologists worried that this whole compromise thing could blow up,'' said Lucas. ``It's within the director's job to impose a quota if he sees fit. But I don't see anything wrong with letting the fishermen catch the fish for a few extra weeks - once they're out there.
``As long as their effort is down, that would just show me there are more fish around. I felt like the fishermen had met the commission halfway on this issue. We were working well together.''
Freeman was not available for comment Tuesday.
In addition to having a longer season so they could take advantage of the spawning run, watermen said they needed extra weeks because it's been so cold this winter and early spring that the fish haven't even started showing up yet. Byrum and his brother haven't yet landed 500 pounds of herring. About 40,000 pounds of herring have been sold throughout the state so far, Winslow said - but at least 90 percent of those fish came from gill nets and, therefore, don't count toward the proposed pound net limit.
``If the season wasn't extended past April 15, it would shut down - no matter what - for all gear, and the fishermen wouldn't even get to land 250,000 pounds,'' said state Fisheries Management Section Chief Jess Hawkins. ``We're trying to keep mortality as similar to last year as possible to protect the herring stocks.''
Marine Fisheries Commission member Kurt Fickling voted against allowing the state to extend the herring season. No matter how few nets the watermen worked, he said, no matter when the fish started showing up, effort should be cut off on April 15 to save the species. ``I don't care what the factors are that caused herring to decline: over-fishing, water pollution, dam construction. There has to be a quota put on what can be caught. If we extend the season, we could allow the fishermen to catch more fish than the stock would be able to use to replenish itself.''
Once the most prevalent and popular food fish in North Carolina, herring filled thousands of barrels across the state and fed most families throughout the lean winter months. Byrum said there were more herring during late April of 1995 than he'd seen in at least 15 years. Rocky Hock fish dealer Ricky Nixon says he's paying 30 cents per pound for the fish now - because the herring won't really start showing up in any numbers for at least another week.
By then, he said, the season may shut down entirely.
``The Division of Marine Fisheries is using false information and doing whatever they want to do with numbers they've pulled out of the sky,'' Nixon said. ``The way they got the season rigged now, no one can make a living out there. This is the straw that broke the camel's back - the way they're handling this so-called compromise.
``I don't think you'll find a commercial fisherman around the Albemarle area who's willing to work with those state biologists anymore.''
Byrum agreed. ``They said they'd give us five more weeks if we used less than 100 nets. That would be all right if they didn't put a quota on us. That quota was never part of our deal.
``Every time you give a bit, they keep eating at you more,'' he said. ``They're doing it again. They're going back on their word.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by DREW C. WILSON, The Virginian-Pilot
Although fishermen have offered to limit their herring nets on the
Chowan River in exchange for a few more weeks of fishing, the state
says a catch limit is needed to protect the species.
by CNB