Sweet Mattamuskeet
Birding
Jan 15, 2007

Lake Mattamuskeet

Pamlico Birders/Lower Neuse Bird ClubThursday, January 11, 2007

Mattamuskeet/Pea Island
Birding
Nov 27, 2006

Lower Neuse Bird Club trip Nov. 18-19, 2006

Trends Foreshadow a New Day
Fisheries
Jun 19, 2006
I hope I am around long enough to learn if, for the first time and at the first place, a net fishery and an expanding sport fishery can exist together and grow.
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It Will Take a Net Ban
Fisheries
May 22, 2006

...the only way to the kind of sport fishing we could have is through a net ban. They are fighting words in eastern North Carolina, The political climate remains nowhere near ripe for that kind of change no matter the consequences, no matter that the jobs of a few hundred netters are valued above the public interest. The code we hear to describe it and justify it is “cultural diversity.”

Critical Fisheries Law on the Line
Fisheries
Apr 21, 2006
Now the MSA must pass the House of Representatives. Anglers would be doing themselves a favor by writing their representative and urging support of the bill while reminding of the economic impact of recreational fishing. According to the International Game Fish Association, nine-million-plus U.S. saltwater anglers create an economic output of $31 billion annually and support 300,000 jobs.
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What’s Right with Marine Fisheries Management?
Fisheries
Apr 3, 2006
Marine fisheries management globally and in North Carolina remains a tragic mess, but a few bright spots justify optimism.
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Sauce for the Goose
Fisheries
Feb 21, 2006

Something seems very wrong with laws that subject an angler to a misdemeanor citation and a fine for killing a small illegal fish less than a year old while imposing no penalty whatever on a novice or careless netter killing in one day 100 near the maximum age, size, and reproductive capacity of the species.

MFC Ignores Facts to Mismanage River Herring
Fisheries
Jan 22, 2006
Here in North Carolina we have an accurate understanding of the political clout of a handful of short-sighted netters and the irresponsible citizens the governor appointed to toady to them with indulgent but ultimately ruinous fishing rules.
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Dollars & Sense of Public Resources
Fisheries
Dec 20, 2005

Study after study has shown that commercial fishing jobs cost about 20 times more in expended marine resources than recreational fishing jobs. Sport fishing, therefore, produces more economic benefits overall at a fraction of the cost in marine resources.

A Commission for All the People
Fisheries
Nov 28, 2005

By a 5-1 vote, the Marine Fisheries Commission in September declined to adopt river herring regulations that would recover the stock in the time period required by the Fisheries Reform Act of 1997, as amended last year. The law says the state regulatory agency must, for an overfished stock – which river herring remains after years of abuse -- install harvest restrictions that will end overfishing and recover the stock within 10 years, except if circumstances render that impractical, in which case it shall recover within as few additional fish generations as possible. (Nothing is simple in fisheries.)

Cape Fear Stripers Need a Break
Fisheries
Oct 21, 2005

Solid congressional support should be achievable for a public works project with no downside and the prospect of world-class striper and shad fishing.

Declining Landings Reflect Mismanagement
Fisheries
Sep 28, 2005

State government remains captive of the fishing industry while a handful of organized anglers, playing David to the industry’s Goliath, try to influence lawmaking and management in the public interest.

Fisheries Management is Politics
Fisheries
Aug 16, 2005

Fisheries management is politics. One need look only at the southern flounder and the river herring management plans to be sure. Until some way is found for the vast political mass of sportsmen and environmentalists in North Carolina’s inland metropolitan areas, maybe a million anglers, to exert its will, we will remain under dominion of the commercial industry. Until then, about 4250 active commercial fishermen will continue to be the tail that wags the dog of North Carolina marine fisheries management.

Regarding Greedy Anglers
Fisheries
Jul 31, 2005
Spokespersons for the politically powerful but rationally challenged commercial industry should be dared in every public forum either to support game fish status for striped bass or support a return to netting and commercial sale of largemouth bass.

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