Fishing has always been an integral part of eastern North Carolina culture. Whether fishing for sport or for commercial, everyone can agree that our fisheries are a valuable resource for our State. The only question is who gets to control this resource. Commercial fishermen and sport fishermen both contribute large amounts of revenue to the state economy. There is an ongoing debate as to how the fishing should be regulated to insure the healthiness of the fishery while at the same time provide food and sport for our residents. One controversial aspect of this struggle is the regulations on catch size and limits.
“Some of the limits are one per person per day, and when you get into a school of hundreds of fish, it makes you wonder why. A lot of the limits don’t seem fair,” says John Michael Scott, local off shore recreational fisherman.
Another hotly debated policy is the regulations on which species can be caught by commercial fishermen. NC house bill H.B. 353, seeks to take red drum, spotted sea trout, and stripped bass off the list making them purely for sport. They would only be able to be caught on hook and line and not sold. Proponents of the bill claim that this change would help to increase statewide recreational fishing revenue from a 3.7 billion dollar industry to a 10 billion dollar a year industry. Captain Rusty Barnard is a former commercial fisherman and now charters for sport fish.
“I doubt by making a few more fish available for sportsmen that the money would change very much. There are better ways to solve the problem,” said Barnard.
With improved flash freezing technology, more seafood is being imported from abroad than ever before. Concerns over the health and safety of seafood from other countries has brought about a higher demand for fresh local catches. This will only increase the strain between the recreational and commercial fishermen. This struggle doesn’t look to be going away any time soon.
