Scott D. Taylor 



birds in the wake of a wotting trawlei 



what's legal and what's not legal," 

 says Clinton Willis, a Marshallberg 

 shrimper. "You need a lawyer to read 

 the handbook." 



But it hasn't always been that 

 way. 



North Carolina fishermen are 

 proud of their heritage as aggressive 

 and versatile workers, able to shift 

 from one fishery to the next with a 

 change in seasons. They've developed 

 gear and techniques to mine the 

 shoreline for finned fortunes. 



Fishermen learn their trade 

 through years on the water, most often 

 as understudies to their fathers. They 

 know how the tides, moon, weather 

 and water temperatures influence the 

 catch. In the summer, many of them 

 shrimp. In the fall, they harvest clams, 

 trawl for flounder, flyfish for trout and 

 croaker, and gillnet for spot. 



No doubt, they're efficient. 



And that efficiency has helped 

 turn the critical eye of regulators, 

 sportfishermen and environmentalists 

 onto the fishing industry in recent 

 years. State and federal agencies 

 manage the fish populations, includ- 



ing those that are overharvested or 

 threatened by human activities. 



Fishermen, however, are not suited 

 to these growing regulations, says Jim 

 Bahen, a Sea Grant marine advisory 

 specialist. They think regulators are 

 picking on them. And they're frus- 

 trated because they don't know what 

 the future holds or how to respond. 



"It's like everybody has discovered 

 the coast in the last 12 years," says 

 Willis, whose pickup sports a bumper 

 sticker declaring commercial fisher- 

 men an endangered species. "We've 

 had the coast for the last 100 years, 

 and I think we've been good stewards 

 to it." 



Irate fishermen admit, though, that 

 they are part of the problem. They 

 have difficulty learning what's at stake 

 when a regulation is pending; they 

 tend to not organize or voice their 

 opinions. 



"We don't react until (a regulation) 

 is already here, and that's our fault," 

 Tillett says. "It's our fault for being 

 that way. But it's hard to keep it all in 

 your head. It's hard to run that boat. 

 You've got three men depending on 



you. Some of the boats are owned by 

 somebody else, and the captain has to 

 produce or he's not going to be there." 



Organizing is simply not their 

 nature, Tillett explains. Fishermen are 

 not politically connected or especially 

 articulate. They're either working or 

 tired from working when it's time to 

 meet. 



They feel outnumbered and 

 overpowered. But perhaps more 

 importantly, they don't organize 

 because feuding divisions within their 

 own ranks are at odds over fishing 

 grounds and resources. Often, the battle 

 lines are drawn over gear. 



"That's really the bad thing," says 

 Joey Daniels, part-owner of Wanchese 

 Fish Co. and manager of its two North 

 Carolina facilities. "You take your 

 long-netters; they can't stand crab 

 potters. Gill-netters don't like trawlers. 

 They think they catch up all the fish. 

 It's one thing after another. They just 

 don't get along." 



The commercial fishermen in North 

 Carolina have long been portrayed as a 

 monolithic group of conservative, 

 independent people living in rural 

 coastal areas. But in truth, they're more 

 complicated than that. 



They are as varied as the catches 

 they harvest from the ocean and 

 estuaries. 



Unlike Tillett — whose family 

 owns two 85-foot, steel-hulled boats — 

 Willis is a one-man operation. He has 

 little else to fall back on. He built his 

 own vessel, the wooden 37-foot Capt. 

 Will, named for his grandfather. He 

 shrimps by himself in the spring and 

 summer. Come winter, he moors his 

 boat and creates stained-glass art and 

 windows to shore up his income. 



North Carolina is home to many 

 fishermen who stay close to the shores 

 they grew up on, harvesting oysters and 

 clams from small boats. Others like 

 Willis are more mobile, with larger 

 boats to shrimp and gillnet. 



Only a handful of successful 



16 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1993 



