The state’s commercial fishing industry is seeing reduced activity, and high fuel prices are being blamed. According to Mrs. Mathis between regulations and fuel prices, commercial fishermen are a dying breed. She said that the seafood owners are facing adversity after adversity as they fear that there won’t be a fishing industry if this continues.
Diesel has become more expensive for commercial fishing boats go out therefore very few people are entering or staying in the fishing industry. Mrs. Mathis and her husband own two offshore snap-per-grouper fishing boats. She said that with the cost of fuel, they’ve maybe curtailed their areas. According to fish dealer reports from the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF), there were 5,361 active standard commercial fishing licenses in the state as of April 18. The number has come to 100 licenses from 5,461 licenses in 2007 from the same time period, and down almost 700 from 6,053 licenses by June 30, 2007.
According to official data in the first four months of 2008 there were 31,898 commercial fishing trips, down 3,721 from 35,619 trips during the same time period in 2007. The fishermen blamed the current situation on increasing fuel prices. Sean McKeon, president of the N.C. Fisheries Association, told that because of the rising fuel costs, fishermen can’t spend a lot of time on trips searching for the fish. He also said that the uncertainty of what fuel will cost from one day to the next makes the fishermen more cautious about their business and many of them are now considering alternative business.
