same time, they must strike a balance 

 between commercial fishermen who 

 fish to feed their families and 

 recreational fishermen who feed the 

 coastal economies with millions of 

 tourism dollars. 



Circumstances are complex and 

 decisions, pressure-packed. Manag- 

 ers are realizing that they need to 

 know just as much about people as 

 they know about fish and shellfish. 



This biennium, Sea Grant is 

 funding several efforts aimed at 

 learning more about fishermen, their 

 problems, their conflicts and their 

 real value to the economy. 



Commercial fishermen hate turtle 

 excluder devices, or TEDs as they 

 call them in polite company. 



Their list of reasons for despising 

 these devices is as long as a child's 

 wish list at Christmas. Most fre- 

 quently, fishermen say TEDs lose the 

 catch they need to fill their nets and 

 their pockets, can't be used in areas 

 thick with submerged grasses and 

 add yet another cost to doing 

 business. 



But also on that list is a gripe 

 against the National Marine Fisheries 

 Service (NMFS), the agency that 

 developed TEDs and the regulations 

 that govern their use. Watermen have 

 never forgiven the agency for 

 designing the excluders without 

 input from the commercial sector 

 and for forcing the regulations down 

 fishermen's throats like an unwanted 

 dose of bad-tasting castor oil. 



Fishermen don't want that to 

 happen again, says Sea Grant 

 researcher Michael Orbach. Orbach 

 and Jeff Johnson, anthropologists at 

 East Carolina University, are mid- 

 way through a two-year Sea Grant 

 project designed to solicit 

 fishermen's input into the regulations 

 needed to manage the state's multi- 

 faceted fisheries. 



When compared to other states, 



North Carolina has relatively few 

 fisheries regulations for watermen to 

 adhere to, Orbach says. But recent 

 problems with overfishing and 

 resource decline have fisheries 

 managers talking about a full plate of 

 new rules. 



Many of the considerations 

 center around a concept Orbach calls 

 direct effort control. 



Three types of direct effort 

 control have been tested and used in 

 other states. One type limits the 

 number of people licensed to fish for 



, B|ll|| 



Michael Orbach 



■f: 



ECU News Bureau 



a certain species. Most people call 

 this type of management limited 

 entry. 



A second type of direct effort 

 control limits the amount of fish or 

 shellfish a fisherman is allowed to 

 catch. The fisherman is allotted a 

 quota, or percentage of the total 

 harvest, that he can catch himself or 

 that he can sell to others. This type of 

 management is commonly called 

 Individual Transferable Quotas, or 

 JTQs. 



A gear-based control system is 

 the hallmark of the third type of 

 control system. Under this plan, the 

 amount of gear a fisherman uses, for 



instance crab pots, is limited. 



Fisheries managers are giving 

 these management alternatives 

 serious consideration. But Orbach 

 says before any decisions are made, 

 fisheries managers must consider 

 what effects these strategies will 

 have on commercial fishermen. 



To find out that information, 

 Orbach, Johnson and graduate 

 research assistant Patrick Stanforth 

 are using a variety of methods to 

 learn more about commercial 

 fishermen, their way of life, their 



Jeff Johnson 



ECU News Bureau 



problems and how they feel about 

 proposed solutions. 



During the first year of their 

 project, the team has pored over N.C. 

 Division of Marine Fisheries license 

 information to learn what fisheries 

 watermen are engaged in and what 

 gear they use. From the license 

 information, the researchers chose a 

 subsample of fishermen to complete 

 a mail survey. In the survey, fisher- 

 men were asked their fishing history, 

 which species they sought, when 

 they targeted certain fish and 

 shellfish, and what kind of boats and 

 gear they used. 



Continued 



COASTWATCH I 1 



