KING: Fight to protect fish species continues

The persistent southwest wind hit us square in the face as we left protected Germantown Bay, rounded Willow Point Shoal, and headed for Abel Bay in the mouth of the Pungo River.

It was a slow wet ride to say the least. Three foot swells were crashing over the bow of the boat. We slowed down even more, shook the water off our faces, and pressed on.

Most fishermen would have turned around under these adverse conditions, but we knew the craft was worthy of those strong swells, and in a few short minutes we would be close to speckled trout and red drum heaven.

We have spent a lot of time, money, blood, sweat, and tears over the last few decades to locate these fish as they move about Pamlico Sound and its many tributaries. Seasonal changes, tide, wind, and available food sources tell us where the best places might be on a given day.

Finding and casting to large schools of speckled trout and red drum are quite rewarding to the recreational angler. Seeing these resources exploited by commercial fishermen and their non-selective gill nets, is a huge slap in the face to those of us who abide by the Division of Marine Fisheries strict rules of size and creel limits.

From Thanksgiving until the week after Christmas last year, we consistently caught speckled trout that weighed up to five pounds in Rose Bay Creek. Some commercial fishermen witnessed us fighting those huge fish, on trips out on the sound to check their crab pots.

Soon all of Rose Bay Creek was wrapped up in gill nets. There was no way another speckled trout could make it to the point where we had so much fun only days earlier.

The trout came up the creek to seek a safe haven for the winter. The creek is much deeper than the shallow sound, the water is warmer, and the fish know they would have a better chance to survive bitter cold nights as well as frigid winds.

Rose Bay Creek was not the only area of our state that was targeted by commercial fishermen last fall. Almost every coastal tributary from Manteo to Southport saw many nets, and speckled trout and red drum of all sizes were hauled away to market seemingly by the ton.

While we helplessly witnessed this great abuse of our resource, we were not the only ones on the water to get angry. A group of concerned fishermen has banned together to try halting this slaughter of two species that are very important recreationally to Eastern North Carolina.

The Coastal Fisheries Reform Group was formed as a voice of the recreational fisherman. The group wants legislative action taken now to protect these two fish, before they are gill-netted to near extinction in our coastal waters.

The C.F.R.G. wants speckled trout and red drum to be declared game fish in our state’s waters. Efforts to establish this status failed before the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission, so the group turned toward the N.C. General Assembly to pursue its goal.

On March 31, two state legislators introduced a bill in the N.C. House that would give speckled trout and red drum game fish status in all of North Carolina waters.

This bill would also ban all commercial sale of the two species.

N.C. Rep. Carolyn Justice, R-New Hanover/Pender and N.C. Rep. Paul Luebke, D-Durham co-sponsored the bill, known as H918. Under state law, game fish cannot be sold, purchased, or transported for sale, or exported for sale from North Carolina. Game fish status requires that the fish be caught only on hook and line. No creel limits are changed.

It is already illegal to net speckled trout and red drum in inland waters of the state. This new bill would protect them in coastal waters like the Pamlico Sound, all the way to Federal waters, three miles out in the ocean.

The new bill, if passed, would put a hardship on only a handful of commercial fishermen along our coast. Part of the bill states that the Marine Fisheries Commission shall make mitigation payments from The N.C. Marine Resources Fund to commercial fishermen licensed in the state, who can demonstrate actual financial losses due to the designation of red drum and speckled trout as coastal game fish.

Most of the commercial fishermen rely on catches of flounder to pay their bills. Speckled trout and red drum only accounted for $882,220 in revenue for these fishermen in 2007. The new bill would allow for payments of $1 million to these fishermen by the year 2010.