Million sports anglers catch 15 million pounds

ore than a million recreational fishermen caught more than 15 million pounds of saltwater fish in North Carolina in 1998, according to the latest annual survey released recently by the state.
Those fish were caught during more than 4.4 million fishing trips. On about 1.5 million of those trips, the people fished from the surf or from the bank
Of the fisherman who participated in the survey, about 635,000 were from out of state.
Spot were the most numerous fish caught, at 2.8 million, followed by bluefish, dolphin, summer flounder, croaker, pigfish, speckled trout, kingfishes, Spanish mackerel and gray trout.
Catches for most of the popular species declined since 1997. Some of the drops were dramatic. Fishermen, for instance, caught 211,000 pounds of southern flounder in 1997, but only 88,000 the following year. Spanish mackerel catches declined 63 percent and croaker 45 percent.
Speckled trout catches, though, were up 48 percent, summer flounder 38 percent and gray trout 21 percent.
As a comparison, a few thousand commercial fisherman caught almost four times as many fish as did saltwater recreational anglers in 1998. While the sportsfisherman landed less than 500,000 pounds of flounder, the commercial boys were hauling in 6.9 million pounds.

Speaking of sportsfishing...
A much better law requiring

sessment, the current flounder population is less than 50 percent what it should be. The National Resources Defense Council, Environmental Defense, the National Audubon Society and the Center for Marine Conservation sued the National Marine Fisheries Service, charging that the agency ignored federal law by setting a flounder quota that stood less than a 20 percent chance of preventing continued overfishing of the summer flounder stock.
The court unanimously agreed and ordered the Fisheries Service to develop quotas that have at least a 50 percent chance of attaining a fishing rate that will stop overfishing and rebuild the stock.

Caught a citation fish?
The N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries offers handsome citations for all species of popular marine fish caught on hook and line. The fish must be weighed in at an official weigh station. If the fish is released, a witness must sign the application form.
Here are the minimum weights or lengths for fish to qualify for a citation: Bluefish, 17 pounds; croaker, 3 pounds; black drum, 40 pounds; red rum, 40 inches and must be released; flounder, 5 pounds; pompano, 2 pounds; sea mullet, 1.5 pounds; sheepshead, 10 pounds; Spanish mackerel, 6 pounds; spot, 1 pound; gray trout, 6 pounds; and speckled trout, 4 pounds.
Call the division at 800-662-2632 for more information and application forms.

a recreation saltwater-fishing license could be introduced in the state senate this summer if Sen. Marc Basnight, the president of the senate, gave it his blessing.
A very weak bill passed the N.C. House last session but was bottled up by Basnight, who hails from Dare County and is beholden to commercial fishermen.  They oppose a saltwater license because they know it will give the million recreational anglers a voice in the management of our marine resources.
A new licensing bill that fixes many of the flaws in last year's bill could be introduced in the Senate if Basnight showed any real interest in seeing it passed.
Drop him a line -- you'll find his address on Page 6. Tell him how important the a license is to sports anglers and remind him that he'll need your vote if he intends to someday run for statewide office.

Flounder quota challenged
Siding with four environmental groups a U.S. appeals court in April struck down the 1999 federal fishery quota for summer flounder, an important commercial and recreational fish. The court found the quota to be too high to allow the flounder to recover.
Summer flounder has been overfished for years. According to the government's own as