been in existence about as long. 

 Though there have been other promis- 

 ing starts of fishing groups and 

 associations, the follow-through rate 

 has been dismal, Schill says. 



"When you get into this kind of 

 mess, you have to be in it for the long 

 haul because the opposition is in it for 

 the long run," says Schill. "It amazes 

 me how when they (fishermen) get 

 into politics, they give up. There is 

 little to be hoped for in terms of the 

 industry trying to save itself if they 

 don't start tackling the government 

 like they do Mother Nature. 



"They say, 'I'm sick of this 

 because there's politics in fisheries 

 management,'" says Schill. "There's 

 politics in education; there shouldn't 

 be, but there is. There's politics in 

 every aspect of our life. 



"Commercial fishing is the last true 

 bastion of free enterprise in our life," 

 he says. "Commercial fishermen will 

 either learn to play the political game, 

 or support those who are playing the 

 political game for them, or they will 

 see their demise." 



Fishermen must learn to fight back 

 and learn whom to fight. 



"The agencies, by their very nature, 

 assume that everybody out here knows 

 their area of authority," says Schill, 

 adding that the sea turtle situation is a 

 prime example of misdirected anger. 

 "The bureaucrats did not pass the 

 Endangered Species Act. We spend 

 probably too much time beating on 

 bureaucrats." 



People who make policy would 

 also benefit from unity among fisher- 

 men. 



"We want the fishermen to be 

 organized so they can tell us in one 

 voice what they want to see in the 

 fishery," says Mahood. 



But managers want to hear a 

 credible voice, not angry threats and 

 insults hurled their way at public 

 hearings. 



Fishery managers, too, would 



benefit from a study in semantics; 

 their careless comments breed as 

 much contempt. After all, poor 

 communication is a two-way street. 



"I personally feel that NMFS does 

 not know how to deal with people," 

 says Shepard, adding that he's heard 

 managers voice their intent to elimi- 

 nate a specific percentage of fisher- 

 men with more stringent regulations. 

 Such statements evoke the image of 

 the college professor who announces 

 the first day of class that half the 

 students will eventually flunk. 



As North Carolina's commercial 

 fishing community begins to feel the 

 pinch of gear limitations, catch quotas 

 and other restrictions, they will need 

 to know who's who. 



"Fishermen, particularly North 

 Carolina fishermen, are just now 

 being impacted by regulations," says 

 Kemmerer. "This is forcing them to 

 get involved and start to understand 



where we're coming from." 



Both Shepard and Schill see a 

 glimmer of hope in fishing associa- 

 tion auxiliaries, in which families of 

 fishermen become involved in the 

 regulatory process. Another promis- 

 ing startup is an association of the 

 state's crab-potters, formed to 

 address the problem of space 

 conflicts. 



Shepard is also hoping for 

 improvements to the Magnuson Act, 

 scheduled for reauthorization this 

 year. If fishermen could achieve a 

 swifter avenue of appeal for federal 

 regulations, for instance a hearing 

 within 30 days, he says, "you'd see a 

 great change." M 



Ocean and Coastal Law, written by 

 Richard G. Hildreth and Ralph W. 

 Johnson, was a helpful source in 

 outlining the history of the 

 Magnuson Act. 



COASTWATCH 7 



