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Plan to curb net fishing is met with resistance
By Scott Harper
The Virginian-Pilot
19th February 2004
Federal officials are expected to get an earful tonight from angry fishermen and dubious scientists and regulators over a plan to virtually ban a netting practice in the lower Chesapeake Bay, a move intended to help sea turtles survive.
The National Marine Fisheries Service will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. at a Virginia Beach hotel on its proposal to greatly curb pound-net fishing in much of Virginia’s half of the Bay during peak fishing months, from May 6 to July 15 , starting this year.
Several fishermen who still use the age-old netting technique said the federal action, if adopted, would all but put them out of business. And they question whether the measure would
even conserve migratory sea turtles, which stop at the Chesapeake Bay in spring and summer to feed, rest and sometimes lay their eggs in coastal sand dunes.
“I’ll lose everything I got,” said Edward Bender , a 73-year-old netter from the Eastern Shore. “And for what? It’s totally ridiculous.”
The fisheries service believes the proposed crackdown will stem an alarming rise in sea-turtle deaths along the Virginia coast. The number of reported carcasses climbed to more than 500 last year, by far a record. The previous high was 368 mortalities in 2001 . Scientists have been tracking turtle strandings since 1979 .
In a sense, the fishery service’s hands are tied. Because Atlantic sea turtles are guarded by the national Endangered Species Act – most of the marine reptiles are considered “threatened” – federal regulators must take some action when even one animal dies from human interaction.
However, state fishery managers and scientists, along with coastal fishermen, are questioning why the government needs to react so harshly, saying there is little evidence that pound nets are responsible for killing more than a few turtles a year.
The service, in its formal proposal released last week, said its researchers documented 13 deaths related to pound nets in 2002 and 2003 .
Jack Musick , a professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and a renowned expert on sea turtles, described a two-week pound-net closure last summer as “using a 12-pound axe when a scalpel is needed.” Despite the closure, turtle deaths continued to increase.
Musick has suggested that the rise in mortalities is probably due to a combination of factors, which could include abnormally cold water, the possibility of disease and the fact that more turtles can be found off Virginia nowadays.
The Virginia Marine Resources Commission , which regulates commercial fishing and coastal ecosystems, is also opposed to the federal plan, saying other measures and more study should be pursued.
“It’s a major situation,” said Rob O’Reilly , assistant state director of fisheries. “We can’t see how these pound-netters could recoup their losses” from a three-month shutdown.
Pound netting gets its name in how the traps are set. Fishermen pound poles into the bottom of a waterway and hang a long, mesh fence called a leader between them. Fish such as spot and croaker run into the leader, then follow it to a heart-shaped net where the fisherman is waiting.
The fisheries service said 31 pound-netters were active in the lower Bay in the spring and summer last year. They landed 3 million pounds of fish worth about $800,000 at the dock.
The agency said its action would likely reduce the fishermen’s revenues by 18 percent – a figure that local netters said was comically low.
“It’s not worth your time to fish without a leader, and they want to ban leaders,” said Bender. “You do the math.”
Reach Scott Harper at 446-2340 or at scott.harper@pilotonline.com
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