The Harris family is in a profession that is highly special- 

 ized and slowly fading away. In North Carolina, there are 

 about a half dozen full-time net shops. South Carolina and 

 Georgia have even fewer. 



"It is getting to be a lost art," says Nicky Harvey of 

 Harvey & Sons Net Shop in Davis, which boasts dozens of 

 crab pots. "We used to stay busy doing nets year-round. Now 

 half of our net business is gone. We are surviving by selling 

 crab pots. Seventy-five percent of our business is crab pots." 



Most netmakers attribute the decreasing demand for nets 

 to the growing number of state and federal regulations for 

 commercial fishers. In North Carolina, there are specific 

 requirements for fixed, gill, trawl, channel and pound nets and 

 seines that are used to encircle fish and close all escape routes. 

 Regulations also limit nets pulled by more than one boat and 

 those used in long-haul fishing operations. 



The regulations include mesh size, the diamond-shaped 

 hole in the webbing. A net with large netting will hold only big 

 fish. To catch a smaller fish, a smaller mesh is needed. 



In 1992, North Carolina became the first state to require 



bycatch-reduction devices (BRDs) in shrimp trawls. The 

 devices allow juvenile or small fish to escape via openings in 

 the trawl nets, allowing fishers to keep mature fish and shrimp. 



"Netting is going down the tubes like fishing," says Heidi 

 Roberts. "It looks like they are putting more and more restric- 

 tions on fishing." 



Not everyone's business has declined because of the new 

 regulations. Melvin Shepard of New River Nets in Sneads 

 Ferry has diversified his business — selling outdoor wear as well 

 as nets. 



"The fishing industry is alive and well," says Shepard. "In 

 the 20 years that I have been in business, every year has been 

 better than the year before. We take care of recreational and 

 commercial fishermen." 



Recently, the debate over netting regulations has intensi- 

 fied between commercial fishers and sportsfishers. Texas has 

 banned all gill nets. Louisiana restricts the use of gill nets, 

 trammels or entanglement nets and seines in salt water, except 

 for special permitted fishers during certain seasons. Florida has 

 banned all gill nets and the use of monofilament — also used 

 in fishing lines — for all except hand-held nets. 



In North Carolina, the Wildlife Resources Commission is 

 proposing a gill-net ban for inland waters. 



In December, the National Marine Fisheries Service 



Melvin Shepard attaches a shrimp trawl to trawl doors outside 

 his Sneads Ferry shop. 



16 SPRING 2000 



