Captains angry over proposed log books

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — In Carolina Beach charter boat captains are mad about proposed new restrictions on their fishing expeditions. Wednesday they met with marine fisheries commissioners to discuss doing away with the proposals. Charter boat captains say new restrictions would just be too much but folks with the NC Division of Marine Fisheries don’t agree.

The new restrictions would come in the form of a log book where captains would be required to record what they see as minute details about their trip. Folks with marine fisheries say this is necessary to collect accurate data about how “fished” our oceans are. People gathered to express their frustration at the logbooks and the process of getting them in place. They say it has brought usually competing captains together.

“This log book is kind of the glue that has drawn us together and now we all have a common goal to work toward which is hopefully stopping this log book,” said Robert Schoonmacher, a local captain. “If we can’t stop this log book then maybe we can go back and work with the state and find something we all can agree on.”

Folks with marine fisheries say they hear them.

“There’s a lot of push back from the for-hire industry because they see it is a burden and in a lot of ways a lot of people don’t trust the government these days,” said Don Hesselman, with the NC Division of Marine Fisheries. “So we wanted to convince them that it is a good thing, there’s a lot of positives for them there’s a lot of positives for us.”

The log book proposal goes up for a vote by the marine fisheries commission middle of next month. It is possible that vote could be delayed so a compromise could be worked out. That is what these fisherman want most of them anyways. What became clear tonight though, is that these log books are coming it’s just a matter of time.