The Hatteras group - Elizabeth Ainslie Struminski, Susan West and Crystal Blackmon 



and a socialite, he'd never have gotten 

 into commercial fishing. Most commer- 

 cial fishermen are somewhat loners. 

 Most of them are kind of shy. That's 

 why they fit into that job. They don't 

 want to be around a crowd of people." 



This doesn't mean that command- 

 ing a microphone at contentious and 

 crowded hearings comes easily to 

 women accustomed to private lives in 

 small towns. 



"I'm not a public speaker," says 

 Carawan. "It means enough to me that 

 even though it makes me nervous and I 

 get sick to my stomach sometimes, it's 

 worth it." 



Nor are the alliances always easy. 

 Carawan says the label "commercial 

 fisherman" is as ambiguous as "profes- 

 sional athlete," encompassing everyone 

 from trawlers to crab potters. 



"A basketball player can't go play 

 football," she says. "A football player 

 can't go play tennis. Commercial fishing 

 is just that diversified, and people tend to 

 throw them all together. Even in our 



As North Carolina watermen 



contend with unprecedented government intervention, 

 a new leadership has emerged in the quiet fishing villages 



that hug the coast. 

 This growing force has 

 come forth not from 

 the decks and docks 

 in these communities, 

 but from the kitchen tables. 



The auxiliaries are a true grassroots 

 movement in which average citizens 

 upset over government actions have 

 inserted themselves into the decision 

 process, she says. Members have to 

 become politically savvy about how 

 conclusions are reached, she says. That 

 means using formal access points such 

 as public hearings as well as networking, 

 lobbying, media and personal contacts 

 that sometimes hold as much sway. 



"They go to public hearings and 

 they write up commentary," Zagzebski 

 says. "But they've recognized the impor- 

 tance of covering these informal chan- 

 nels as well." 



Similar organizations have been in 

 place in the Northeast and Pacific North- 

 west for some time, mostly in response 

 to heavy regulation in those areas. The 

 Pamlico auxiliary had a predecessor in 

 the early 1980s that focused on inlet 

 maintenance, then became inactive. 



Zagzebski found in her research that 

 the three active North Carolina auxilia- 

 ries have developed specialties. 



The Pamlico auxiliary is noted for 

 raising money channeled toward an 

 annual trip to Washington, D.C., to 

 lobby Congress and toward the main 

 fisheries association. The Pamlico group 

 retains a mostly female membership. 



Carteret and Hatteras-Ocracoke 

 have many fisherman members. The 

 Carteret auxiliary has a reputation for 

 meticulous research on fisheries issues. 

 The far-flung Hatteras-Ocracoke group is 



Continued 



auxiliary, we don't all always agree. 

 One kind of fishing gets in the way of 

 another." 



Such differences, some speculate, 

 played a large part in the downfall of 

 past representation efforts, such as the 

 defunct Carteret County Waterman's 

 Association. The dormancy of an 

 auxiliary of the Southeastern North 

 Carolina Waterman's Association, 

 formed four years ago, is in part blamed 

 on inner conflicts. 



So far, the success of the N.C. 

 Fisheries Association auxiliaries has 

 been in part due to their determination 

 not to be split by the often divisive 

 issues they face. 



"They try to avoid pitting one 

 fisherman against the other. They're 

 trying to speak with one voice. They 

 work toward issues that are good for the 

 fishing industry as a whole," says 

 Kathryn Zagzebski, a Duke University 

 student in environmental management 

 whose master's degree project focuses 

 on the auxiliaries. 



COASTWATCH 1 7 



