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The legislation prohibits menhaden purse seine boats within three miles of the Brunswick County coast from May through October.
Menhaden, also called pogie, bunker, or fatback, are small, oily fish that travel in large schools close to the shore. Seine boats circle schools with a net, drawing the fish close to a much larger vessel that pumps the fish into its hold.
Oil extracted from menhaden is used in everything from lipstick to industrial lubricants to processed foods. The fishmeal is used in agricultural and aquacultural feeds. Menhaden are also used as bait in recreational and commercial fishing.
Senate President Pro Tempore Marc Basnight voted for the legislation.
"Senator R.C. Soles, the most senior senator, requested this legislation to manage beaches in his district, and Senator Basnight agreed to vote for the bill because there are similar regulations for menhaden in the northern beaches," explained Schorr Johnson, communications director for Basnight.
In the 1990s, state fisheries regulators adopted a rule restricting menhaden boats off the shores of an area off northern Dare County.
And, Rep. Pricey Harrison (D-Guilford) who voted against the bill, said the legislature should have let the fisheries commission handle the Brunswick County situation too.
"The legislature does not need to insinuate itself into fishery management disputes. We don't have the expertise or experience to make these sorts of decisions," Harrison said.
The state Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) and the Marine Fisheries Commission (MFC) opposed the menhaden bill.
"We are concerned that the General Assembly's impending action undermines the spirit and intent of the 1997 Fisheries Reform Act and usurps the authority of the Marine Fisheries Commission," wrote MFC chairman Mac Currin in a letter to legislators.
The Fisheries Reform Act set up a process for the development of comprehensive management plans for species important to commercial and recreational fishermen. The state writes some plans, and adopts others developed by regional and federal fisheries councils.
Menhaden management falls under a plan developed by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, a compact of East Coast states charged with managing inshore migrating species.
Stock assessments show that the menhaden population is healthy.
Currin noted that the issue is "social and perceptual rather than a resource issue."
Sean McKeon, president of the North Carolina Fisheries Association, agreed that it isn't a resource issue.
"Make no mistake about it, this has nothing to do with menhaden and everything to do with further bans on commercial fishing in our state, including the ultimate prize for the recreational interests — a net ban in coastal waters," said McKeon.
Proponents of the ban said better recreational fishing and increased tourism would come to Brunswick County if the pogie boats were outlawed. Some recreational anglers said the boats break the food chain for king mackerel and other species targeted by sport fishermen.
Supporters also argued that the state had nothing to lose with a ban.
"It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to allow menhaden boats from Virginia to come into the waters of North Carolina and remove a resource that belongs to all eight million citizens of the state," Representative Bonner Stiller (R-Brunswick), the bill's sponsor, told the Wilmington Star News. "They don't leave a dollar bill in North Carolina."
Purse seiners from Omega Protein's plant in Reedville, Va. still fish for menhaden off the Carolina coast.
North Carolina's last menhaden plant, Beaufort Fisheries, closed its doors in 2005. A residential community is planned for the former fish factory site on Taylor's Creek in Carteret County.
The Coastal Mariner, one of the company's vessels, is now an artificial fishing reef. Renamed The MicKey, the 180-foot vessel was sunk earlier this month near Frying Pan Shoals.
Jim Francesconi, artificial reef coordinator with DMF, said another vessel, the Gregory Poole, was purchased by Dominion Marine in Norfolk, Virginia, and is being prepared for towing and sinking.
Two locations for the sinking, Hardee's Reef and Howard Chapin Reef, both accessible from Beaufort Inlet, are under consideration.
Francesconi explained that the state doesn't fund these projects, and that the private individuals, fishing clubs, or conservation groups that buy the vessel from the Norfolk company would determine the site.
"The project is in the works but isn't an absolute until we come up with the cash," he said.
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