For more than a decade, declining fish 

 stocks, along with increasing regulations, global 

 competition, fuel and maintenance costs, user 

 conflicts, storms, coastal development and 

 closures of polluted harvesting grounds have 

 buffeted the commercial fishing industry. 



Surveys by the N.C. Division of Marine 

 Fisheries (DMF) show few are getting rich 

 through commercial fishing. Only 6 percent 

 earned more than $30,000 annually; 26 percent 

 earned between $15,001 and $30,000; 26 

 percent earned between $5,001 and $15,000; 

 31 percent earned from $1 to $5,000; and 1 1 

 percent reported $0 or lost income. 



Once the pillars of North Carolina's 

 coastal economies, now 70 percent of 

 commercial fishers hold land-based jobs to help 

 make ends meet. 



taught in the middle 



While the number of commercial fishing 

 licenses has not declined significantly, fewer 

 license holders are fishing full time today than 

 in 1999, when the state adopted a new licensing 

 system, according to DMF data. 



That doesn't surprise Billy Carl Tillett, a 

 fifth-generation waterman from Wanchese. 



"It's because of the uncertain future. Fish 

 haven't changed. The weather hasn't changed. 

 They both run in cycles. What has changed is 

 the number of regulations," says Tillett, who 

 moved off the water in 1989 to help run the 

 family's fish-packing house. 



"We can live with size limits or net 

 regulations. But when it comes to quotas and 

 the number of days any given fishery season 

 is open, that's another story," says Tillett, 

 chairman of the North Carolina Fisheries 

 Association (NCFA), a trade organization 

 representing the commercial fishing industry. 



"It's simple economics. If you don't catch 

 it, you don't get paid," he says. 



Much of the industry's resentment is 

 aimed at the layers of rules that govern when 

 and where certain finfish or shellfish may 

 be harvested. Regulations also spell out gear 

 requirements or restrictions to safeguard marine 

 mammals and endangered species, such as sea 

 turtles. 



North Carolina's mid-Atlantic 

 geography is blessed with a 

 diversity of fisheries, thanks to the 

 convergence of the colder Labrador 

 Current from the north and the 

 warmer Gulf Stream from the south. 

 In addition, many lucrative species 

 follow north-south migratory routes 

 through offshore waters. 



It adds up to a complex 

 management strategy. 



The National Marine 

 Fisheries Service (NMFS), with the 

 Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and 

 South Atlantic Marine Fisheries 

 commissions and councils, manage 

 fisheries in federal waters from three 

 to 200 miles offshore. 



The N.C. Marine Fisheries 

 Commission (MFC), with the 

 DMF, oversee fisheries from inland 

 saltwater bodies to three miles into 

 the Atlantic. 



Susan West, whose husband 

 Rob West is a full-time commercial 

 fisher from Hatteras, would like to 

 see MFC, as well as state appointees to national 

 and regional councils and advisory boards, 

 become more assertive in making the case for 

 North Carolina. 



"Our representatives are in a better place 

 to balance science with economic realities 

 for the state, but they often get caught in the 

 middle," she points out. 



And so do the fishers. Like many in the 

 industry, her husband moves seasonally among 

 fisheries. He once held a license to target 

 the commercially lucrative snapper-grouper 

 complex. 



"However, at the time the new federal 

 limited-entry permit system went into effect, he 

 could not qualify for a license to fish snapper- 

 grouper because he didn't have enough annual 

 landings necessary," she says. "It was a catch- 

 22. The rules that were meant to prevent over 

 fishing penalized him for low landings." 



He wasn't alone. DMF statistics show that 

 227 commercial fishers harvested snapper- 

 grouper in North Carolina in 1994. By 2002, 



CLOCKWISE FROM 

 TOP LEFT: Dave 

 and Lisa Beresoff 

 are branching out to 

 create a market for 

 locally caught fish. 



• Use of various 

 nets is frequently 

 reviewed by 

 regulators. • Jeffrey 

 Aiken of Quality 

 Seafood (left) lends 

 Rob West (right) a 

 hand aboard West's 

 commercial fishing 

 boat, the Lucy B, 

 on Hatteras Island. 



• Susan West is 



an outspoken advocate for the Outer Banks fishing 

 community and an organizer of the first "Day at the 

 Docks" festival. • Billy Carl and Ryan Tillett, who 

 operate Moon Tillett Seafood in Wanchese, are riding 

 the tides of change in the industry. 



18 HIGH SEASON 2005 



