Veteran fisher Mike Peele pulls up some flounder in the Pamlico Sound 



trees down. You can envision how much work it 

 was in the old days." 



Fishers also have to dip nets in a copper 

 solution to reduce the growth of marine 

 organisms, including barnacles. They spread the 

 heavy nets out to dip them and then lift them up 

 with a large crane rigged on the back of a 

 ''boom" truck or old pickup truck. 



At Cedar Island in Carteret County, they 

 celebrate the hard work of fishers with a boom 

 truck parade in the winter. 



"They have between 15 to 18 trucks," says 

 Joey Gilgo of Adanuc, whose truck is in the 

 parade. 'Trucks are painted up every imaginable 

 way — from nets hanging from the booms to 

 clam cages painted on." 



Passive Gear 



Although the pound net is tedious to set up, 

 it is an efficient way to catch fish, according to 

 Jim Bahen, North Carolina Sea Grant fisheries 

 specialist. "Pound netting is considered passive 

 gear because fish are led into it. All fish are 

 caught alive. You can throw back what you 

 don't want." 



In North Carolina, the North Carolina 

 Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) requires a 

 5 1/2-inch mesh escape panel in all flounder 

 pound nets except those in the western 

 Albemarle Sound, allowing flounder 12 inches 



long and less to get out. 



Pound nets also do little harm to the turtle 

 population, fisheries officials say. 



In random sampling of pound netters in 

 Pamlico Sound as far north as Avon and south 

 to Core Sound and Back Sound behind Harkers 

 Island, the National Marine Fisheries Service 

 (NMFS) found that the fishers caught more than 

 250 turtles alive during fall 2001. 



"There is little turtle mortality associated 

 with pound nets because the turtles can come to 

 the surface to breathe and rarely become 

 entangled in the nets," says Joanne McNeill, 

 NMFS fishery biologist in Beaufort. "In the fall 

 as turtles migrate out of the sound, they are 

 incidentally captured in pound nets. Also, some 

 loggerheads enter the pound nets looking for a 

 source of food." 



However, pound nets have one drawback 

 — the maze of poles can be a navigational 

 hazard for boaters who aren't aware of them, 

 according to North Carolina Sea Grant fisheries 

 specialist Bob Hines. 



In North Carolina, pound nets are used to 

 catch flounder in Currituck, Albemarle and Core 

 sounds and also in the Pamlico Sound — from 

 Hatteras Island to Hyde County and south to 

 Carteret County. Fishers also use this traditional 

 gear for summer flounder, gray trout and 

 Spanish mackerel in the Pamlico Sound, as well 



as for river herring in the Chowan River and 

 Albemarle Sound. 



Over the past five years, the number of 

 North Carolina permits for pound nets has 

 dropped significantly across North Carolina 

 from 965 in 1995 to 634 in 2001 , according to 

 the DMF. 



"During the 1990s, fishermen began to 

 switch from pound nets to gill nets," says David 

 Taylor, DMF fisheries section chief. "Gill nets 

 are easier and cheaper than pound nets and don't 

 require permits." 



Taylor also attributes a decline in permits to 

 the consolidation of nets and fewer "block nets." 



"Fishermen used to put up block nets 

 around other nets so the migration of fish 

 wouldn't be obstructed," he adds. "They have 

 gotten rid of some of the block nets." 



River Herring Fisheries 



One of the biggest declines in pound net 

 permits has been in Chowan County where the 

 number of nets dropped from 122 in 1995 to 67 

 in 2001, according to DMF. 



"The number of nets has dropped because 

 of harvest quotas on herring that was put in 

 effect in 1995," says Sara Winslow, DMF 

 northern district manager. 



Prior to 1995, there were no restrictions on 

 river herring. However, quotas were set in 1995 

 to let the stock rebound because of overfishing 

 and adverse environmental conditions as well as 

 pollution and runoff to ditching. Also, the 

 draining of the Chowan River's tributaries for 

 agriculture destroyed some herring spawning 

 grounds. 



In 2000, the N.C. Marine Fisheries 

 Commission adopted a Fishery Management 

 Plan for river herring to protect herring stock. 

 The plan limits the commercial herring fishery 

 to 300,000 pounds per year for the entire state. 

 That total allowable catch is divided into three 

 portions: 200,000 pounds for the pound net 

 fishery on the Chowan; 67,000 for gill nets in 

 the Albemarle Sound herring management area; 

 and 33,000 pounds that the DMF director can 

 assign. 



Winslow says it will be a number of years 

 before the herring fisheries recovers. "It will take 

 three to five years for the fish produced in 2000 

 to reach sexual maturity," she says. 



The number of pound nets in Carteret 



18 WINTER 2002 



