For North Carolina fishermen, a 

 shortened season could mean a loss of 

 most of their incomes. Their earnings 

 are tied to the amount of fish they 

 catch. If a shorter season means fewer 

 fish, it also means fewer dollars in the 

 pockets of fishermen. 



Many of the workers that would 

 have been affected are black. John 

 Maiolo, a Sea Grant researcher and 

 sociologist at East Carolina Univer- 

 sity, assisted Blomo with the 

 sociological aspects of the study. 

 Maiolo says that blacks have 

 traditionally been excluded from the 

 "glamour" fisheries, such as shrimp- 

 ing, because they lacked the capital 

 and the connections necessary to 

 market their catch. 



"For poor whites and for blacks, 

 menhaden fishing has offered an op- 

 portunity to make money. In a good 

 year, a fisherman could make as much 

 as $20,000 for six months of work," 

 says Maiolo. 



"A shortened season would have dis- 

 placed these people and society would 

 have to pick up the tab, either in the 

 form of training for new jobs or welfare 

 payments. The economy is poor, there 

 aren't many unskilled jobs around, 

 and they don't have the background 

 for an eight-to-five job," says Maiolo. 



"A shortened season 

 would have displaced 

 these people and 

 society would have to 

 pick up the tab . . ." 



— John Maiolo 



A shorter season in North Carolina 

 could eventually improve the fishing in 

 northern states. National Marine 

 Fisheries Service tagging studies il- 

 lustrate the stratification of the fish by 

 size along the coast. The older, larger 

 fish migrate farther north. Robert 

 Chapoton has spent 20 years with the 



Photo by Neil Caudle 



federal research program for 

 menhaden. He says reaction from 

 North Carolina fishermen is not sur- 

 prising. "If you save a fish from North 

 Carolina, it will be in Virginia or 

 maybe in New Jersey in the next two 

 or three years." 



But Chapoton says National Marine 

 Fisheries Service wants to ensure that 

 there's no immediate danger to the 

 stocks of menhaden and to improve 

 the long-range stability of the fishery. 

 "The whole coast would do better if we 

 reduced the catch of the younger fish 

 now and let them become older fish." 



The decision not to shorten North 

 Carolina's menhaden fishing season 

 doesn't please fishermen in the North. 

 They say North Carolina fishermen 

 are catching the fish that would even- 

 tually migrate north. On the other 

 hand, North Carolina menhaden 

 fishermen say they'd have nothing to 

 catch if they left the peanuts in the 

 water. 



But, North Carolina is a key state, 

 says Paul Perra, Interstate Fisheries 

 Program Coordinator with the Atlan- 

 tic States Marine Fisheries Commis- 

 sion. "North Carolina is the state 

 fishing the small fish. They're taking 

 the peanuts and excluding those fish 

 from the rest of the industry and from 

 future years. By not going along with 

 the plan, North Carolina stopped the 

 interest of the plan. If the state doesn't 

 comply, the plan will be useless." 



— Nancy Davis 



