Less foreign fishing means more fish foil 



( Continued from page one ) 



to put the brakes on foreign fishing, conserve 

 stocks and make them available to U.S. fishermen. 



Meekins, now 51, works a long haul rig for 

 croaker, spot, trout, bluefish and rock fish. "If it 

 weren't for the trout, then I wouldn't be making as 

 much money. I'm making as good a living as I was 

 then, but we've been having warm winters. Them 

 cold winters we don't make as much money." 



In the days when river herring were "a big 

 thing," says Meekins, "we didn't have trawl boats, 

 no scallops. If we didn't have it now, we'd be in bad 

 shape." As the state's fishing industry has grown, 

 there have been increasing numbers of large 

 trawlers fishing from South Carolina up to New 

 England. 



Those fishermen know what foreign fishing is 

 all about, too. Gus Saunders of Wanchese saw 

 foreign vessels "all the time" off New England "in 



school after school, this summer there were 80 or 

 90 fleets." 



The foreign fishing is "just far superior to us for 

 catching fish," according to Kenny Daniels of 

 Wanchese. Larger 200- to 300-foot foreign boats, as 

 compared with 100-foot or smaller American trawl- 

 ers, are able to weather rougher seas, Daniels says. 

 And, they have more sophisticated equipment. 

 "We'd get 10 or 12,000 pounds a tow, they'd get 50 

 or 60,000 pounds. We're getting rid of our smaller 

 boats and getting bigger ones." 



It's these North Carolina fishermen, the ones 

 who move farther offshore and north, who are 

 likely to be affected by the new legislation first. 

 After March 1, 1977, when the Act goes into effect, 

 there should be fewer of the big, efficient foreign 

 vessels and their accompanying factory ships in 

 U.S. waters. And soon, there should be more fish 

 available for American fishermen. 



Macon Meekins, Wanchese — It seems as 

 though in the last 10 years our herring in- 

 dustry has been decreasing. . . The boys in 

 Albemarle Sound don't catch them there 



either. A lot of them's had to go out of the 

 business. One fellow just tied his rig up 

 and got him another job. It's just a thing of 

 the past, herring fishing is. 



