THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 13, 1996 TAG: 9609130592
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WANCHESE LENGTH: 107 lines
For 20 years, Steve Daniels has fished for flounder.
But this fall, for the first time, the Wanchese waterman won't be allowed to catch the popular food fish.
Officials shut down North Carolina's flounder fishery March 3. A season isn't scheduled to re-open until January. By then, the state's annual quota for flounder catches may be cut in half.
Watermen say that the entire allocation could be caught in a month. Then, commercial flounder fishermen would have to go almost another year without earning an income from one of the coast's most profitable species. Such financial setbacks also would occur on the heels of this year's short season - which already is forcing some fishermen to miss payments on their homes, boats and bills.
``If they can't go flounder fishing this fall, the impact's going to be terrible, awful,'' Daniels' wife, Robin, said Thursday. ``If they're shut out after January, too, we won't have any winter income at all. It'll be devastating to our entire community.
``I sure hope that's not going to happen.''
On Tuesday, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission are scheduled to vote on new summer flounder quotas for 1997. East Coast landings averaged 31.7 million pounds between 1976 and 1988. For 1997, the Monitoring Committee of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council recommended a coast-wide commercial quota of 8.4 million pounds.
North Carolina's commercial flounder landings averaged 7 million pounds between 1989 - when the first federal regulations went into effect - and 1995. In 1996, the state's entire allocation was only 3 million pounds. Next year, the recommended quota is about 1.5 million pounds.
``Our watermen caught 700,000 pounds more than their quota for this year in less than nine weeks,'' said Dennis Spitsbergen, the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries' executive assistant for councils.
Spitsbergen represents the state on the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council. ``It's recommended that overage be taken off of next year's allocation. It's also possible that another 800,000 pounds come off North Carolina's quota because that amount was added by a judge - in response to a lawsuit - in 1994.
``I'm not going to tell you we don't have a lot of flounder out there. But what we have is a lot of small fish,'' Spitsbergen said. ``When you catch small fish, you kill a lot more. We're trying to get the flounder mortality down. There's also a recommendation to increase the size limit on those fish from 13 to 14 inches.''
Such measures to save the abundant species, however, may wipe out commercial fishermen, worried watermen say.
Already more than 50 flounder trawlers have left the state to search for shrimp and other species. More than 500 North Carolina watermen depend on the flat fish for the majority of their income. About 85 percent of the state's flounder fishermen live in Dare, Hyde and Pamlico counties.
Wanchese fish dealer Joey Daniels, a distant relative of Steve Daniels, said each flounder fisherman has lost at least $10,000 in income this year.
``It would be a disaster if they adopt that recommended quota for next year,'' Joey Daniels said. ``There's no way we'd last six weeks with that few fish. We'd be closed for the entire year by February.
``And the price'll go down if we catch all the fish at once,'' said Joey Daniels, who sits on North Carolina's Marine Fisheries Commission. ``If there's such a shortage of fish, how can we catch 'em all in less than nine weeks this year with less effort and fewer boats working? That doesn't make sense, the way they're trying to manage these fish.
``Everybody's behind on their bills. Nobody's made any money. We've tried to go shrimping. But the storms have wiped that out,'' Joey Daniels said. ``Some people are taking out loans. But it's hard to borrow money when you can't bank on any coming in. Most people just aren't paying their bills.
``If there's no relief for this fall fishery - much less after January - people will begin losing their houses and their boats. Then they won't have any way to earn an income. And no one wants to ask for welfare.''
North Carolina watermen catch more flounder than those from any other state. They receive 27 percent of the coastal quota. A year before federal management rules went into place, Tar Heel State watermen were abiding by a 13-inch minimum size limit and using tailbags in their nets to reduce catches of non-spawning-size fish.
``Flounder are one of the most important species we've got,'' North Carolina Fisheries Association biologist Rick Marks said. ``They come at a time late in the season when it's too late to get crabs and shrimp. They carry people over the winter months. And they fetch good money from restaurants and overseas - from $1.20 to $5 per pound. Usually, they begin showing up around October.
``But if you want flounder in North Carolina this fall, you'll have to buy it from other states or import it,'' Marks said. ``That's just pathetic. Especially when there are so many flounder out there.''
Six other states along the coast also are closed to flounder fishing. And four have restrictive trip limits that specify how many pounds watermen can land each day. Three states, in addition to North Carolina, already have exceeded their 1996 allocations.
Recreational anglers, however, haven't yet caught their quotas. Hook-and-line fishermen along the Atlantic brought in 2.2 million pounds less than they were allowed to land last year. Since 1993, they've under-harvested their limit by a total of 4.5 million pounds.
``The flounder target was to leave 80 percent of the stock in the water each year,'' Marks said. ``From 1989 until 1995, the amount of spawning flounder in the ocean tripled. Yet they're still trying to drive the total landings down.''
About 80 commercial watermen from North Carolina have written federal officials, asking that the flounder fishery be re-opened for this fall - or, at least, not cut for next year.
One fisherman, Terry Carawan of the Outer Banks, said flounder regulations are causing untold hardships. ``Families are being forced to drop their much-needed hospitalization for lack of funds,'' he wrote. ``We need to work. We want to work. For the sake of hundreds of people suffering from the unfairness of the National Marine Fisheries, I beg you to investigate this matter and give the opportunity to work back to the commercial fishermen.'' by CNB