Although I usually refrain from political issues, its the fishing issues that concern me and probably ls the most concern to our members.

In the recent September 17th issue of The Brunswock Beacon Coluimnist Tom Campbell wrote “Time to fix our ‘fishy’ regulations”. It is a great article and, yes, if you hurry, copies are still available on the newsstands!

Here are a couple of key points that I found interesting:

• NC has 322 miles of ocean shoreline and over 12,000 miles of rivers, bays, sounds and wetlands -the second largest in the U.S.
• Until the last quarter century NC fisheries were so abundant that overharvest was seldom a concern.

So what happened? Basically, commercial fishing started putting enormous pressure on the coastal fisheries and fueled a blame game between commercial fishing and the growing recreational sport fishing interests.

In the 1960’s the Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) evolved within the umbrella of the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and led to the establishment of the Marine Fisheries Commission (MFC). The mandate of thse agencies is to preserve our Constitutional right to fish and harvest fish and to keep our fisheries from harm and destuction. But with all of this bueaucracy and all of these acronyms is it any wonder that recent evidence shows that not one of our state’s 13 ‘managed’ coastal fisheries is viable in the long-term.

Now what? As a result of a six-year law suit filed against the state by citizens and supported by the NC Coastal Carolina Association, it was concluded that the state has completely failed to meet the long-term vialbility standard needed to preserve our fisheries. The court directed the parties to meet, to prepare reports, and to schedule further proceedings. There were no new restrictions placed on over-fishing, no changes in policy, and no actions taken that stop further damage to our fisheries.

Our state still has the most lax regulations on the entire East Coast and that”s a damn shame.