Soft crabs packed for market. 



Scott D. Taylor 



Based on that information, 

 Johnson was able to determine some 

 distinctive fishing patterns and the 

 fishermen central to those patterns. 

 Then, Stanforth conducted in-depth, 

 face-to-face interviews with these 

 fishermen to gather even more detail 

 about North Carolina's complex 

 fishing scenario. 



Beginning this spring, the 

 research team will round out its Sea 

 Grant project with three workshop 

 series. 



During the first workshops, 

 fishermen will be asked to talk about 

 the problems and issues they face. 

 Researchers will discuss some of the 

 management options tried in other 

 areas of the country. 



In the second series of work- 

 shops, scheduled for early summer, 

 Orbach and Johnson will talk with 

 fishermen about possible manage- 

 ment options for North Carolina. 

 Then fishermen will be asked how 

 they think these management 

 schemes would affect them. 



"We will give them examples of 

 systems that limited the number of 

 people and tell them what hap- 

 pened," Orbach says. "We'll give 

 them examples of where they put in 

 ITQs and tell them what happened. 

 We'll give them examples of where 

 they put in gear-based controls and 

 tell them what happened. Then we'll 



12 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1993 



say to them: 'Given this is what 

 happens when you do this, what do 

 you think we should do here?"' 



Finally, in late summer, fisher- 

 men will be asked to attend a final 

 series of workshops. Here, they will 

 hammer out the management and 

 enforcement details for the options 

 favored most heavily during the 

 second workshops. 



Orbach says this project offers 

 several advantages. It will provide a 

 comprehensive report that docu- 

 ments the complexities and interre- 

 latedness of Tar Heel fisheries. 



But more importantly, "going 

 through the extensive workshops, the 

 fishermen will: A, understand what's 

 going on and B, have a stake in it," 

 Orbach says. "That's what we call 

 the bottom-up theory of developing 

 fish regulations." 



Orbach readily admits that if 

 fishermen had their druthers, there 

 would be less regulation instead of 

 more. 



"All things considered, they'd 

 really rather not have regulations, but 

 I'd rather not have speed limits too 

 when I drive the car," Orbach says. 

 "Most people I talk to say we really 

 need to do something. They just 

 want to be in on it." 



And Orbach says if fishermen 

 ignore the need for regulations and 

 effort control, then they may lose 



their place in the resource allocation 

 system. Other competitive forces such 

 as developers, recreational fishermen, 

 marina operators, conservationists and 

 tourist interests could essentially edge 

 fishermen out of business. 



"There is a two-edged sword with 

 the lack of regulation and the lack of 

 property rights in the fisheries," he 

 says. "The good part is there aren't a 

 lot of people telling you what to do. 

 There aren't a lot of rules and regula- 

 tions. 



"The bad part is you are kind of 

 hanging out to dry when these other 

 competitive forces come in, and you 

 have no publicly recognized rights or 

 privileges in the system," Orbach 

 says. "In fact, this is the case in most 

 of our fisheries today. That's what 

 these direct effort control systems do. 

 They give commercial fishermen a 

 publicly defined and recognized place 

 in the system. They grant private 

 ownership of the privilege, not the 

 resource, to people who are going to 

 have to depend on that resource." 



But it is in the fishermen's interest 

 to tailor the privileges they receive to 

 meet the problems and challenges they 

 face. And Orbach is hoping his project 

 will provide fishermen the input into 

 the management that they deserve. 



"NMFS has got (itself) into the 

 position at least of appearing to push 

 one type of solution — ITQs," Orbach 

 says. "The danger in that is the tool kit 



