Game Fish Bill: ‘Beginning of the End for Commercial Fishing’ (North Carolina)

Carolina Journal ^ | Jan. 12th, 2012 | Sara Burrows

[bksanders]

… Commercial fisherman Jonathan Robinson took issue with that. “Those resources belong to the public,” he said. “They’re not just exclusively for the rich, who can afford boats and trips to the coast. Commercial fishing is a channel that provides access to these resources for all the citizens — for the blacks in the cities and the poor working people in farm towns in North Carolina.”

Commercial fisherman Chris McCaffity of Morehead City echoed his sentiment. “I recently had a disabled veteran thank me for defending his freedom to eat the fish he once caught himself,” McCaffity said.

Over the course of its next three meetings, the Marine Fisheries Committee also will be studying the impact of eliminating trawl boat fishing in North Carolina.

Foster said that would mean the end of shrimping in North Carolina, which he estimates makes up almost a quarter of the state’s commercial fishing industry. It also would eliminate much of the state’s flounder fishing. “It would wipe out all of the fishing communities on the west side of Pamilico Sound,” he said.

McCaffity is scheduled to speak at the next meeting of the Marine Fisheries Committee at 1 p.m. Feb. 2 on the third floor of the state legislative building. There was no public comment period at the first meeting.

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[bksanders]

OK, North Carolina, we need your support. Surely we can get 300 patriots out to the state house on Feb 2nd.
Please contact Chris McCaffity at his web site.
An excellent video, A Fisherman's Life can be viewed here.

The covert sublime and incessant erosion of freedoms continues until YOU stop it.
It's a choice not to become a "boiled frog".
They want us angry, hungry, broke and unarmed.

[Travis McGee]

The socialist tyrants are pushing on every front.

[EQAndyBuzz]

Just a guess. Liberal do gooders?

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Already gone here. when I was a young man you could cross the San Sebastian River, when the fleet was in, by jumping from boat to boat.

[wxgesr]

Government still killing jobs and making it illegal to buy cheap local fish and shrimp.

Plus, with Agenda 21 type of efforts trying to keep people off of the best fishing beaches in NC and VA, soon we won’t be able to catch our own.

Dammitall2hell!!!!!!!!!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

When everybody owns something, nobody owns anything.

[bksanders]

Exactly Eric. Where was that swearing in ceremony and who “swore” atcha?!?!

[C. Edmund Wright]

I don’t think this is as simple of an issue as you think. It’s certainly NOT a pure left versus right issue at all. This is not a situation of fisherman versus environmentalists.... it’s a situation of commercial trawl fishermen versus sports fishermen. That is, it’s a somewhat conservative group against a very conservative group.

The notion that 97% of the people are begging for the right to eat those three varieties of fish is ludicrous. It’s the commercial fishermen who are “running to the left” on this issue - running to the left of the sports fishermen.

The sports fishing industry has evolved to an industry of more catch and release than anything else. The commercial fishing industry will have to evolve to a more farm based industry IMO.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

When I was a kid I'd wake up way before daylight to the sound of shrimp trawlers and snapper boats running out through the inlet. boat after boat.

St. Augustine had 2 thriving fish houses shipping seafood all over the Nation. We would have Carolina boats, Texas boats and Mississippi boats unloading here in season..

[bksanders]

EQ - I am uncertain from which side of the fence thou speakest :-) ???

McCaffitty is simply trying to make a living without placing himself in neeedless peril. Something these 4th and 5th generation Tar Heels do to survive.

Follows my letter to every swingin' **** in the NC House:

To All Concerned Parties, It is with urgency and respect I address the issue of Comprehensive Fishery Management. Mr. Chris McCaffity has made it abundantly clear a change of course is required, one that will both benefit all shareholders, provide the necessary safeties and apply common sense. His proposed "comprehensive fishery management plan…offer(s) as an alternative to HB-353, catch shares, and derby fisheries" deserves both open debate and presentation to both the House and Senate. Please take the time to fully digest Mr. McCaffity proposal and distribute the contents of this proposal to all those tasked with the impacts associated with fishery laws that do not follow most of the mandates in the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA). The Plan can be viewed by clicking this URL. The families of Alan Nelson and the others who daily risk their lives demands our collective attention and actions. I thank each of you for your time and trust you will act swiftly and in accord with the best interest of all Americans.

[demkicker]

***Bingo***! You hit the nail on the head.

[C. Edmund Wright]

McCaffitty is simply trying to make a living without placing himself in neeedless peril. Something these 4th and 5th generation Tar Heels do to survive.

Let me ask you this, and I am NOT being snarky - I am being serious: Could it be that the 5th generation of this industry needs to understand the reality of the times? Most industries do not last 4 or 5 generations without radical change. Could it be that commercial fishing old school is the buggy whip industry trying to defy the reality of change?

[bksanders]

CEW - Where did I leave the impression this was a "simple" issue?
Simple issues are the ones where I can call you a name / epithet and you reciprocate, getting us nowhere, gaining no ground.
The "good ol' boys in NC want to see to it that they alone can make MONEY of the "recreational fish". The fish ain't "theirs alone" to make money offin'!
Leave the damn "commercial fishermen" the hell alone. The GOP'er can take their good ol' boy out-of-state invitees on snipe hunting expeditions. They sicken me.
These are the types that pay thousands of dollars to "hunt" a deer that has been fed and fenced.
This is NOT a right/left issue until you consider the governmental extraction of ones rights. That, my friend, is a leftist paragon.
So the good ol' boys want less gubmit until gubmit intervention can help fill their pockets.

97% of "the people" beg for nothing…

"The commercial fishing industry will have to evolve to a more farm based industry…

So the gubmit can say "where" the farm is and subsidize it?
Society needs to "devolve" into a self-sufficient people…

[tacticalogic]

It sounds like the politicians simply looked at it from the standpoint of where they stood to get the most tax revenue.

Sport fishing probably brings more tourism, and results in more money spent per fish caught than commercial net fishing, which translates to more tax dollars collected.

They'll throw their own citizens that make their living off of commercial fishing under the bus for the promise of more tax money collected from out of state tourists.

[Capt. Tom]

Could it be that commercial fishing old school is the buggy whip industry trying to defy the reality of change?

There is not much of a market for buggy whips, but people want to be able to buy "ocean" caught fish to eat. - tom

[palmerizedCaddis]

I am a fisherman, albeit a snobby elitist country club SOB accoring to many of the Dhimmi Trolls who lurk here.

I wrote your good dhimmikrat U. S. senator Kay Hagan Phogbound a letter about this matter several months ago. The reply that I received seemed to say that since some catfish can walk, they are prospecvtive democrat voters and must be protected.

I think the person writing the answer mentioned that someway or the other the decision REYNOLDS vs. SIMMS and the voting rights acts put together makes it unconstitutional to discriminate against any class of potential dhimmikarats, remember a two day old catfish smells like many DIMMS that I have passed on the street.

Good luck in your foray against the loony crackpots.

I think it is exactly kook vs. commercial enterprise. Remember Nixon is the one who gave us the EPA. We can’t blame that on the DIMMS.

Remember you folks in NC have a congressional district that essentiially requires its voters to be able to see I-85. From the Burbs of Charlotte up to the Triad.

Caddis the Elder

[bksanders]

Yes CEW, I suppose we could simply "farm" the industry off shore and eat our hormonally infested environmentally correct allotment and watch our blood count dive to Asian levels.
Progress for the sake of the name is insanity.
You can't buy a damn two by four these days because of the "evolution" of that industry.
My dog can die because of the "evolution" of the pet food industry.
My appliances last one day out of warranty because of the "evolution";
My house is built like $hit because of the "evolution" of… ad nauseum

Some things are better left alone.

[Paleo Conservative]

The sports fishing industry has evolved to an industry of more catch and release than anything else. The commercial fishing industry will have to evolve to a more farm based industry IMO.

I bet the sports fishing industry brings in lots more money than commercial fishing.

[Beagle8U]

I read the alternative plan at the link you posted and agree somewhat.

The stupid size limit plans should be dumped, as should throwing back all the dead fish to stay within TCL rules.

I disagree with the plan to ship all the ‘over quota’ fish to the so called ‘poor’.

A better idea would be to allow them to go to any state licensed REC fisherman to have them free, up to their daily catch limit.

That would bump up state fishing license sales many thousands a year, which goes directly back to the state fish/game dept.

It would also be great PR for the commercial fishermen which are often looked down upon by sport anglers.

What would that do for state tourism if that vacationing angler had a good chance of taking home a cooler full of fish even if they failed to catch any? That makes that nonresident license a much better deal.

The ‘poor’ can buy a state fishing license and pick up those overfish right at the docks, no extra government program needed.

[bksanders]

Right on Tactician - It's tax revenue. Did you take the time to look at how the "geniuses" derived their numbers.
Apparently one pound of commercial fish equals 300 pounds of recreational fish.
Perhaps the commercial fishermen need to lure (pardon the pun) the "Sportsmen" onto their vessels?
Kinda like taking a cruise on a freighter.