Crocker 



continued 



fish all summer and not catch that 

 many." 



By 1967, the urge to be on the 

 water was too strong to ignore. He 

 gave up teaching to become the cap- 

 tain of a 54-foot private motor yacht. 

 He guided the boat to Florida for 

 the winter and North for the 

 summers. 



Three years later, Crocker de- 

 cided it was time to settle down. He 

 returned to Wrightsville Beach, got 

 married and started a boating 

 business. 



"Being dumb and foolish, I didn't 

 even realize there was a recession 

 going on. I had $600 in the bank. We 

 lived off my wife's salary. It was four 

 or five years before I ever drew a 

 salary," he says. 



But Crocker was a hard worker. 

 Before long, he had obtained the 

 Grady White franchise for south- 



eastern North Carolina. Today it is 

 one of the most lucrative small-boat 

 franchises. 



His one-man operation has grown 

 to one with 15 employees, and he 

 also owns an interest in a Morehead 

 City boat store. 



In his 20 years in business, 

 Crocker has watched the recrea- 

 tional fishing industry change. 



Most folks weren't prosperous 

 enough in the 60s to own their own 

 boats. But now, small boats are af- 

 fordable to a lot of people, Crocker 

 says. 



"That's caused a lot more pres- 

 sure on the fishing resource, but it's 

 not an unrealistic pressure," he says. 



As a spokesman for the industry, 

 Crocker's opinions have a recrea- 

 tional bias, but he's always open to 

 compromise. Conserving the fish- 

 eries is the most important con- 

 sideration, he says. 



"Government regulatory agen- 

 cies have got to enact rules and 

 regulations that conserve not only 



for recreational but for commercial 

 fishermen too. And what's good for 

 one is good for the other. But they 

 may not be regulations we all want," 

 Crocker says. 



"One of my major concerns in 

 recreational fishing is, through 

 whatever means, we've got to con- 

 serve this resource for our children 

 and grandchildren and future gen- 

 erations. And I'm talking about 

 recreational and commercial. It 

 doesn't make any difference," 

 Crocker says. 



Even so, Crocker feels commer- 

 cial fishermen have an advantage 

 when it comes to management deci- 

 sions. "We know how many com- 

 mercial fishermen there are 

 because they buy a license. And 

 they sell their harvest, so there's a 

 dollar value on the industry," he 

 says. 



But Crocker says he often feels 

 handicapped by a lack of quan- 

 titative information about the 

 recreational fishing industry. 

 Despite the widespread economic 

 impact of recreational fishing, 

 statistics on saltwater anglers are 

 hard to come by. 



"The legislature and other reg- 

 ulatory bodies have no indications 

 of the value of recreational 

 fishermen to North Carolina," 

 Crocker says. 



But he adds that the sheer num- 

 bers of the sportsmen are beginning 

 to make legislators and policy- 

 makers take notice. 



