Does greed trump all concerns here?

Theoretical scenario: You and your friends love to fish for (take your pick) largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, striper, trout, catfish, walleye, bream or crappie.

There are so many of us who engage in this pastime, states have set up agencies (in North Carolina, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission) to make sure all citizens can enjoy fishing (if they wish) as a recreational sport (and pump hundreds of millions of dollars into the state’s economy through purchase of boats, motors, rods, reels, baits, lures, camping fees, licenses, fuel charges, etc.).

The WRC, in fact, prevents anyone from using any device (nets, hook-and-line, dynamite, generators) in public freshwater lakes or streams to capture any of these gamefishes, then sell them to make a profit. The state basically sees freshwater gamefishes as public resources to be protected, conserved and used for public recreational purposes — not for private profit.

Now, say you want a little more challenge and decide to try saltwater fishing. Today in this state, anglers must buy a recreational fishing license to fish with hook-and-line in saltwater (ocean, inlets) or brackish water (sounds, some rivers). Why? Because the state legislature declared a year ago that saltwater and brackish waters also are public waters. The legislature couldn’t force you to buy a saltwater fishing license if saltwater regions in North Carolina weren’t part of the public domain.

You probably thought, well, that’s OK; now I have to buy a saltwater license but, of course, that also must mean there’s a state agency (the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission) that will serve my interests, as a public-citizen angler, to have saltwater gamefish protected from private profit.

Wrong. It doesn’t work that way in this state.

Here’s the prime example you can read about in this issue.

The MFC, spurred on by a net-for-profit member, asked its Red Drum Advisory Committee a while ago to study whether or not for-profit netters should be allowed to keep 10 red drum “incidentally” caught in nets instead of only seven. Not only that (surprise), recreational anglers still would be able to keep only one slot-size (18- to 27-inches long) redfish per day. How generous.

The Advisory Committee — with at least one member who is a fishing guide — stunned everyone by approving the proposal.

For years, netters who accidentally caught (and almost always killed) red drum in gill nets had to discard any reds that may have exceeded a total of seven, plus they couldn’t have more redfish by weight than the species they targeted (flounder, for example).

Absolutely right; it’s a waste. But netters also saw $$ floating out of their pocketbooks. Now they see a chance to capture more redfish for their own profit (the rest of us get to keep just one fish).

In a Newsbreaker in this issue, you’ll read less than 1 percent of anglers (netters) in North Carolina are landing (by weight) 67 percent of all fish caught annually from state salt waters.

And now netters want to catch more reds because the saltwater management process here is so politically skewed in their favor.

The MFC hasn’t passed this proposal — yet. To express your opinion, go to www.ncfisheries.net and click on Marine Fisheries Commission. Addresses and phone numbers are available.