Fish management held by anglers, pols

Oh, a storm is threat’ning my very life today.
If I don’t get some shelter, oh yeah, I’m gonna fade away.
“Gimme Shelter” — Mick Jagger/Keith Richards

Politics, even at the state level, often is a confusing game. Anybody out there think Mike Easley, once North Carolina’s attorney general and later its governor, ever dreamed he’d end up an admitted felon?

Ah, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

So now we come to the state legislature’s Saltwater Review Committee. This group of 16 is the result of a political deal that tabled the popular gamefish bill (H 353) last year.

In the run-up to an anticipated vote on H 353, proponents made astonishingly dumb strategic moves, errors so obvious as to defy belief (maybe). It left the bill open for use as a chip in a bigger poker game, later played to override Gov. Bev Perdue’s veto of the Republican budget.

But because H 353 had so much public support, the Republicans resurrected it as part of a saltwater resources management study. One committee leader told us gamefish status for redfish, speckled trout and striped bass definitely would be on the front burner. We have learned that might not be the case.

Although there seems to be support for reorganizing the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission — that may include folding it into the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, eliminating it or placing its professional arm, the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, under NCWRC rule — the gamefish bill is on the bubble. One committee member said a bill protecting reds, specks and stripers from nets will get no support from senators from Down East. It likely would pass the House, and in the Senate, it might pass, say 26-24, “but create ill feelings.” He said he “lives down here with commercial fishermen who have a different view” on use of saltwater resources. He said figures that show “best use” of resources heavily tilting toward the recreational side don’t matter. He is unwilling to vote for “ill feelings.”

However, this same politician agreed that saltwater decisions should be left up to the director of the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, who “should be able to do his job without having to worry about getting fired.”

We agree. But if his shackles are removed, will the director steer a course that emphasizes saltwater resources protection? So it boils down, as usual, to short-term monetary gain versus long-term measures that would mean more fish for everyone.

With 5,747 standard commercial licenses sold in North Carolina last year compared to 453,520 recreational saltwater licenses (in 2010), this seems a no-brainer — but not really. Unless recreational anglers convince legislators their interests in a potential booming resource are pressing, paramount and job productive, the pols will stall — and perhaps play poker again with our desires.