Courtesy of the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries 



a disastrous shrimp season. 



Clinton Willis, chairman of the 

 Carteret County Watermen's 

 Association, says the declines in 

 recent years have been drastic. He 

 predicts that fishermen have one 

 more year of profitable kicking 

 harvest. His group is asking for 

 new management schemes and more 

 harvestable area. 



Although DMF would like to 

 open more area for mechanical 

 harvest, "we've given them every- 

 thing we can without getting into 

 the rake and tong areas," Munden 

 says. "We're caught in the middle. 

 The hand rakers are not going to 

 agree to give up any of their area 

 for mechanical harvest, and the 

 mechanical harvesters aren't going 

 to be happy until we open these 

 areas." 



This year to lengthen the avail- 

 ability of mechanically harvested 

 clams throughout the season, the 

 fisheries commission gave DMF 

 Director Robert Mahood the au- 

 thority to set bag limits by procla- 

 mation. Using his authority, he can 

 raise and lower bag limits as the 

 need arises. 



Willis says his group would like 

 for DMF to begin a rotation system 

 where areas periodically would be 



opened and closed to kicking. This 

 would allow stocks in closed areas 

 to replenish themselves. 



Munden says the division has 

 talked to fishermen about a rota- 

 tion system, but until now the fish- 

 ermen have not been in favor of the 

 idea. DMF also presented the rota- 

 tion system to the marine fisheries 

 commissioners. 



The rotation system proposed 

 by DMF would subdivide the area 

 already opened to mechanical har- 

 vest. Munden says the commission 

 wants more information on such a 

 system, and Sea Grant researcher 

 Charles "Pete" Peterson is conduct- 

 ing studies now that may help base 

 the rotation system on scientific 

 facts — recruitment, growth and 

 mortahty rates for various habitats. 



Willis also would like DMF to 

 move, or pay fishermen to move, 

 clams from closed polluted areas to 

 clean public estuarine bottom. 

 There, they could be held "in trust" 

 until they cleansed themselves of 

 their pollutants and spawned. 

 Then they could be harvested. 



Munden says DMF has done a 

 limited amount of relay in the past, 

 but funds are generally not avail- 

 able for such a program. DMF has 

 worked closely with the N.C. Divi- 



Hand clammers and 

 mechanical harvesters vie 

 for harvest areas. Mechan- 

 ical harvesters would like 

 to drop their nets and 

 dredges in the areas tradi- 

 tionally reserved for rak- 

 ing and tonging. But hand 

 clammers want DMF to 

 protect the shallow-water 

 beds needed to sustain 

 their fishery. 



sion of Shellfish Sanitation to estab- 

 lish criteria for temporary open- 

 ings in polluted areas. When water 

 quality standards in these areas rise 

 to "safe" levels, the waters are open 

 to harvest whether it's during the 

 normal mechanical harvest season 

 or not. And since the opening is 

 temporary, no bag limits are set. 



"With a few exceptions, there are 

 not that many clams left even in 

 polluted areas," Munden says. 



Last summer in a legal effort to 

 force open more harvestable area 

 for hydraulic dredges, 18 fisher- 

 men filed a lawsuit in U.S. District 

 Court in New Bern challenging the 

 constitutionality of DMF regula- 

 tions that limited their harvest. 



The attorney general's office de- 

 nied that the regulations were dis- 

 criminatory and requested that the 

 lawsuit be dismissed. No action has 

 been taken in the case. 



But Munden says the restrictions 

 are needed to ensure that hand 

 clammers, kickers and dredgers — 

 have fair access to clam resources. 



As clams become limited, the 

 scramble for these valuable bi- 

 valves becomes more frantic. 

 Hand clammers and mechanical 

 harvesters want a chance to dig up 

 this moUusk that means money. 



