h/s Made Life Easier For Fishermen 



I '} something new . . . just the minimum" to remain 



■ competitive. The hydraulics, which can double a 



■ catch, cost anywhere from $250 to $4,000 and up. 

 I 1 Enough floating and weighted sinking lines to rig 

 ■just one net can cost over $70. 



I "Progress" has made fishermen more vulnerable 

 I to outside forces than in Austin's day, too. Fuel 

 ■costs have risen. Nets, a petroleum product, have 

 Idoubled in price. Insurance keeps going up. New 



■ Social Security regulations are tangling book- 

 Ikeeping. And new Internal Revenue Service re- 

 Iquirements will make it difficult for fishermen to 

 ■use the old method of sharing equipment and 



catches by "fishing on shares." 

 it These days, Foster says, it's hard for a new- 

 I comer to get started. Financing is hard to get, 

 land with interest rates running around 10 per- 

 ■cent, "It's as hard to pay them (loans) back as it 

 lis to get them." As often happens, Foster did it by 

 I first working on someone else's boat and then buy- 

 ling a used boat. 



Crowded Waters 



I Observers and fishermen agree, however, that 

 Irecently younger men — like Bill Foster — have be- 

 Igun to take to the nets. And while the small opera- 

 Itions like Foster's open boat are still popular and 

 Iprofitable, especially in the sounds, government 

 • officials note a trend toward more of the bigger 

 ■trawlers as well. The large trawlers, about 55 feet 

 Band up. usually carry a larger crew and move more 

 Bfreely over greater distances, often farther out at 

 ■sea. The trawlers are better able to move up and 

 ■down the coast as seasons change. 

 H The largest group vying for the increasingly 

 ^crowded fishing space — over 18,000 vessels were 

 •registered in North Carolina last year — is made up 

 ■of sports fishermen. North Carolina has a long 

 r tradition of sports fishing and although those 

 ■catches are not monitored, they are estimated to 

 ■be sizeable. 



I So far, most species have been able to sustain 

 ■the increasingly heavy fishing. Fish are still large- 

 I'y plentiful in North Carolina coastal waters. Cer- 

 i tain fisheries, though, are in trouble, while others 

 are making a comeback. Shrimp catches are said 



The University of North Carolina Sea Grant Program 

 ewsletter is published monthly by the University of 

 onh Carolina Sea Grant Program, 1235 Burlington Labo- 

 itories. Varborough Drive, North Carolina State Univer- 

 ty, Raleigh, N.C. 27607. Vol. 3, No. 2. February, 1976. 

 r. B. J. Copeland, director. Written and edited by Dixie 

 erg and Karen Jurgensen. Second-class postage paid at 

 aleigh, N.C. 27611. 



to be increasing thanks to government manage- 

 ment. Menhaden, of prime commercial importance, 

 are "in trouble," says Harry Davis, Chief of Statis- 

 tics, National Marine Fisheries Service, due to 

 over-fishing. 



In addition, Davis says, the river herring fishery 

 is in trouble due to foreign fishing. There are for- 

 eign vessels in North Carolina coastal waters. But 

 this area has not been as threatened as fisheries in 

 the North have been. There the problem is acute. 

 And, of course, that affects those North Carolina 

 fishermen who follow fisheries that move north 

 as well as south. 



In fact, for a variety of reasons, Davis sees a 

 shift in emphasis in Atlantic coast fishing in gen- 

 eral. The northern fleet, he says, is deteriorating 

 while the North Carolina fleet is growing and 

 becoming more important. The total volume of 

 the North Carolina catch now exceeds the combined 

 catches of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New 

 York, and Connecticut. And that means, says 

 Davis, North Carolina fisheries will increasingly 

 require management as more and more fishermen 

 — some on trawlers from out of state — jockey for 

 space. 



Fishing has changed some since Lawrence Aus- 

 tin's day. Although there are still some rather 

 basic deficiencies in the industry — in icing, in dis- 

 tribution, in processing, in handling. Fishing has 

 nevertheless begun the long evolutionary process 

 from the solitude of a relatively few men with 

 homemade nets to the crowded seas with scores of 

 men and fancy machines. In an ever more crowded 

 world with more mouths to feed, fishermen such 

 as Bill Foster will soon find change of a different 

 sort entering their lives. 



As Fishing Increases, 



„, ,. rffr ' So Does Talk Of Controls 



(( ontuau-d from page 1) 



U.S. catches remained between four and six billion 



pounds annually over the same period. 



Indications are that demand for the sea's bounty 

 will continue to grow. Competition for fish will 

 increase — and still more species could be over- 

 fished. Declining fishery stocks could be the biggest 

 problem for tomorrow's fisherman. 



So what's to stop uncontrolled plunder of coastal 

 waters? What can be done to insure a future for 

 fishermen? 



Some believe that "fisheries management" is 

 the answer. The goal of managing fisheries is to 

 improve or stabilize stocks so that all species con- 

 tinue to thrive. To reach this goal, a variety of 

 controls is used to prevent damage to stocks. 



Ideally, controls are based on a thorough knowl- 

 edge of the abundance of each species and how 

 much fishing each tolerates before it dwindles to 

 dangerous levels. 



Management tools aren't new to North Carolina 

 fishermen. Official openings and closings of sea- 

 sons, restrictions on gear and areas that can be 

 fished and licensing are ways to control fishing 

 and conserve stocks. 



In the past, management has been carried out by 

 the states. When the Division of Marine Fisheries, 

 the agency charged with maintaining coastal fish- 

 eries in North Carolina, plants oyster cultches in 

 Brunswick County waters, it is taking action to 

 encourage continued oyster production there. 

 Since Marine Fisheries identified and closed 

 nursery grounds to fishing in the Onslow area, 

 the average harvest in nearby waters jumped from 

 8,500 pounds in 1971 to some 1.5 million pounds in 

 1974. Annual ups and downs in the shrimp harvest 

 may have accounted for some of the increase, but 

 management probably added significantly to the 

 increase. 



But as foreign and domestic catches increase, 

 many believe that broader controls are needed to 

 conserve species that cross state boundaries or the 

 12-mile offshore boundary where U.S. control cur- 

 rently stops. 



Already states are banning together to manage 

 economically important species. The first of these 

 regional management plans affecting North Caro- 



linians concerns the shrimp fishery. North and 

 South Carolina, Georgia and Florida have agreed 

 to cooperate in setting season opening and closing 

 dates, establishing regional licensing and recipro- 

 cal enforcement and furnishing data needed for 

 management. Similar regional management plans 

 for other species are in the works. 



On an even broader scale, a national fisheries 

 plan has been devised by the National Marine 

 Fisheries Service which sets forth a framework of 

 management involving state, regional and national 

 coordination. Through this framework, it is hoped 

 that fishery stocks will be restored and maintained 

 at a level that meets future U.S. needs — and that 

 keeps tomorrow's fisherman in business. 



About Those Controls . . . 



Here are some of the management tools 

 which are and will be used to insure that 

 we have enough fish to meet tomorrow's 

 needs. These controls govern what the fish- 

 erman can and cannot do. 



Quotas — Limits are set on the amounts 

 of fish and shellfish which may be har- 

 vested over a specific time period. 



Gear Restrictions — Net length and mesh 

 size are regulated, clam dredge weights are 

 controlled. Certain nets used to capture 

 certain species are prohibited. 



Season Restrictions — Season opening 

 and closing dates are set regulating when 

 specific species may be fished. 



Area Restrictions — Certain areas, deem- 

 ed important as nursery and breeding 

 grounds, are declared off-limits to fisher- 

 men. 



Limited Entry— The number of persons 

 permitted to fish for specific species is con- 

 trolled. 



Size Limits — Clams, oysters, crabs and 

 some fish below a minimum size may not 

 to be harvested. 



