Thousand of N.C. fishermen are on their way to Capitol Hill to express their mutual frustration with national fishing regulations. Mikey Daniels, a commercial fisherman and member of the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission, said that the rally is very successful and they are asking for some flexibility in the Magnuson Stevens Conservation and Management Act.
It is told that the act covering federal fisheries law was revised in 2007 to include more stringent quotas and size limits for catches and more restrictions on incidental catches. Daniels said U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., and U.S. Sens. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., and Richard Burr, R-N.C., were among the national leaders listening at the rally that continued for more than three hours.
He informed that the Gloucester, Mass., mayor told them that before tighter restrictions, they had 250 boats. Now they are back to 50 boats. Fishermen from Long Island Sound said it may be the last year they’ll be open. In the caravan of fishermen from top to bottom of North Carolina’s coast, Morehead City fishermen filled two busses that joined one from Wanchese, one from Hatteras and one from Hampton.
Daniels admit that new restrictions limit North Carolina’s share of the catch to 3 million pounds and put the price so high you can’t sell it to the processors to be frozen for the summer. He told that if the quota was doubled we could be processing the fish.
